The Best Time Of Year To Buy A New Lawn Mower For Maximum Savings

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Conventional wisdom says the worst time to buy a winter coat is on the first day of winter. As it turns out, you can use the same logic when buying a new lawn mower to get the best savings. Once the spring grasses start to reach 3 inches in height, it's pretty much too late to get a sweet deal on a lawn mower. Believe it or not, a better time to snag one is around the same time you go looking for a winter coat at your local Black Friday sale. We know, we know — no one wants to face the crowds to buy a cumbersome machine in November. That said, Black Friday lawn mower prices tend to be the best you'll find all year, mostly because lawn mowers are big, bulky, and expensive for retailers to keep in storage during winter lulls.

Generally speaking, you're not going to have the best luck finding a good deal on the most popular brands of lawn mowers -– neither gas nor electric -– during the prime mowing season from June to September. It is true, though, that the best selection of lawn mowers and accessories comes out at this time. However, the price tags you'll find on the mower of your dreams will reflect your late-to-the-game decision-making habits. Still, you can sometimes score good deals on summer holiday weekends. Think Memorial Day, Father's Day, and Labor Day weekends, and you've got a decent chance of landing an affordable mower, even during peak season.

If cheap is all you're looking for when it comes time to buy your dream lawn mower, then we probably can't talk you out of hitting that Black Friday sale. However, because it's the end of the year, most of the best lawn mower accessories have already moved out for the cold season. It's slim pickin's overall. 

Aside from all this, there's something to be said for taking advantage of sales in the days before Black Friday hits. Once October rolls around, most retailers have Christmas on their minds. (You know it's true. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Advent... the season seems to get longer every year.) In any event, those retailers don't want the space they've earmarked for holiday inflatable lawn displays to be taken up by lawn mowers that have gone out of season. That's why in late September and early October, you're likely to find a few sweet deals on mowers because your local department store wants to clear the floor for holiday Santa displays. 

The selection will often be smaller, due to it being season's end, but what you lose in selection, you'll almost certainly make up for in price. Still, there's reason to be cautious. Buying a lawn mower so late in the year has its drawbacks. Once the frosts hit and the leaves fall, you won't have much need of a mower. That also means you won't have time to discover any bugs the mower might come with until the warranty expires, so keep that in mind as well.

Riding lawn mowers are kind of a special breed of yard tools. You should know up front, they're spendy. While something like a Litheli 16-Inch Lawn Mower will set you back $135 and some change, you're unlikely to find a riding mower for so little. It isn't unusual to pay around $3000 for a top-rated riding mower, whether it's gas-powered or battery-operated -– at least, not if you want a decent machine. 

Luckily, you can offset some of the sticker shock you'll run into when buying a riding lawn mower by waiting until April to purchase one. You'll find the best selection and the best price during that month, usually. Many of these mowers are sold in the usual places -– that is, home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe's — as well as online. However, because some of these machines cost as much as a used car, you're going to want to shop around until you find the best deal.