If all you need to do is mow, and you want to keep your wife happy (not a bad plan) by limiting your tractor budget, I'd look for something like an older 2WD utility machine. I'd get enough power that you can run at least a 6' shredder (30hp at the PTO minimum) and even better would be an 8' dual spindle model that would probably require more like 40hp at the PTO to keep from bogging down.
Certainly, a loader is very handy for many things, but I think I'd pass on the machine your buddy has....it's small, doesn't have much power and you can get something much bigger for that sort of money.
This has a loader, which raises the price but I'd bee looking for something like this Ford 3000:
Ford 4000
