What is your best money saving tip?

Best money saving tip? Stock up on dollar store aftershaves (Barbasol Brisk and Pacific Rush, Aqua Velva Ice Blue, Vijon Spice, etc), and make them a major part of your rotation. You can satisfy your need to experiment with a very small initial investment, and these products are generally very good (SWMBO informed me last night that she prefers the $1.70 Vijon to P&G Old Spice).

Watch blade prices on Amazon. You can often get 100 Astra SPs for under ten bucks. Same for Arko stick; you can get 12 for cheap, and that supply will last you a LONG time.

If you must get obsessive (and we all are), try to obsess more about your technique than your tools.

I'm still working on the last one.

Buy a Gillette adjustable as a means to experience from a mild to aggressive spectrum of shaves. This may help fight the temptation to try other razors for the heck of it. Also, buy good products, not 'beginner' stuff that you know are easily replaced and should be after awhile. For example, Simpson's Colonel is a great brush for $65 at Westcoastshaving; especially good for face lathering soaps and creams and no real need to "replace it." Mama Bear's soaps are excellent and cheap. For creams, invest in a tub of Nancy Boy Signature Shave Cream for $19-super stuff that last a long time; or one of the Taylor of Bond Street creams, Rose or Avocado. Get your blades from bestshave.net; they provide a decent variety of excellent blades at a great price.

Off the top of my head....

A Slim or Fatboy razor. Since it's adjustable it will help delay investing in other fixed blade razors.
An Omega boar brush.
A quantity of Arko Sticks or maybe a quantity of Bigelow cream when it's on sale.
A quantity of a low priced, highly regarded blade like Astra SP or Personna Lab
A varieity of drug store after shaves. Pinaud, AV, Vijon, etc.

I could live with that if I had to.

There's no one... I gather!

You'll just start to use up products before acquiring more...it happens over time as you start to realize expenses can really get out of hand. I'm good on blades (300-400) and soaps/creams (7/5) for a couple-three years right now. I'm good to go for quite some time. I rotate thru 5 razors and have no intention of adding any. I use WH as an AS and the splashes I use are available at the drugstore or grocer. I use fragrances very, very sparingly.

I could happily spend the rest of my life using only a user grade Gillette ($5-20), Astra SP blades ($8/100), a Semogue boar brush ($10-25), Arko ($1-2/stick), and Skin Bracer or Aqua Velva aftershave ($3-5/bottle). These are cheap products that give top performance, and the only thing you'll be missing out on is variety. That's what hits your wallet: not craving better performance, but craving more variety, which I'll admit is way overrated.

Hanging around B&B will make you want to try products that you haven't tried, even if they don't outperform the products you already have, just so you'll know what the fuss is about. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but it's not good if you want to save money.

Parallax gave some excellent advice: rather than hoarding, trade stuff that's not your favorite on the Never-Ending PIF PIF or on B/S/T, then you can still try a bunch of new stuff, but you're not re-investing (...yeah, investing, that's the ticket!) every time you want to try a new product. Then you can quench your lust for trying everything but not have to spend a lot doing it.

Don't buy stuff......

Switch back to carts!

Adam R said:

The AD stuff will level off at some point. That point is different for everyone. For me at first I wanted to try everything: razors, soaps, creams, blades, aftershaves, and so on. After a while you discover the stuff that works the best for you. I fell in love with certain razors/blades/products after a while. So you stock up on those items a little bit, then you realize you have enough stuff to pass on to your great grandsons 50 years in the future.

Did you ever notice how many "den reduction" sales are on B/S/T? After almost a year in, I'm almost at the point of having one for razors and products I'm not using.

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+1. At first, I too wanted to try and buy everything. But like Adam said, things will taper off. You will figure out what stuff works best for you. I've also tried to establish the rule of 7: 7 razors, 7 soaps, 7 creams , 7 brushes. When I find that I go over, I list my excess on the b/s/t. The rule of 7 is simply a random number I selected because there are 7 days in a week. I believe it's important to establish parameters.

Be that as it may, here are some of the cost effective items I value most:

Razor: Edwin Jagger DE 89
Shave stick: Palmolive
Cream: jm frazers original
Soap: razo rock
alum: razo rock
blades: Astra sp
brush (boar): Semogue 1305
brush (badger) : Parker silver tip
shave balm: Speick

If you are a user of soft shaving cream, I find that the most economical thing to do is to dab little bits of shaving cream in 5 or 6 places on your face and then face lather. I use much less product this way than when I bowl lather.

jsj_297 said:

Don't buy stuff......

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+1 That is what I call - cut to the chase

RABIDMONKEY said:

get into the SE razors , most are cheaper than your average de or straight

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The blades aren't.

They might last a few more shaves than a DE but this does not make up for finding a cheaper razor.

I started to save money and will soon see it. I have my daily stuff, arko, and I have 3 other nice soaps/creams. I only have one razor, it's all I need. I have one brush and will invest in a better one down the road and PIF this one. I avoid buying all the new soaps and creams and do research carefully as teh reviews here are very great and informative. It took me a month before i dropped $14 on a D R harris soap. lol!
anyhow, as u have hobbies, and I have many, especially my car and music, and children, you cut corners elsewhere in other areas as well.

OccamsBadger said:

I started wet shaving again with a DE early this year. I did it to save money on the horribly expensive cartridges. Well, it appears I was being a bit naive . The AD's are starting to build up and I want new razors, old razors, blades, brushes, soaps...yipes.
So, to keep myself out of bankruptcy court, I am looking for tips on how to save money while enjoying the hobby and feeding my ADs carefully.
I'll start. The best tip I've seen so far here on B&B is to buy the soap refills and mill them into your own container the first time. If you like it a lot, want to make that soap a part of your regular rotation, and the manufacturer's bowl appeals to your aesthetic sense, then buy the fancy bowl. This saves half the money on the ones that don't make the cut.

What is your best idea?

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Face lather with Arko.

Gus/BOTOC/Arkolyte

One of the best general shopping tips is to wait 24 hours before making a purchase, or better still wait a week and see if you still really want it. But otherwise if its within your budget and and something you expect to be useful, then buy and use with no regrets.

My advice is grow a beard, it would be much cheaper.

You'll find it easier to save money if you possess a small fortune.

To acquire a small fortune, start with a large fortune and hang out here.

T-Dog said:

My advice is grow a beard, i would be much cheaper.

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+1

I'm gonna start selling some of the stuff I've collected - that'll make room for more but I'm gonna try and limit myself to only spending what I can make from selling em.

Regarding soaps: I purchase mainstream premium soaps as refills from the cheapest-cost vendor; balance out the higher-cost soaps (self-imposed cost max: $15, including shipping) with purchases of Arko and other budget sticks; use soaps that last a long time and so are cheap per shave; and find high quality/low cost soaps like Mike's Natural Soaps. Okay, let's see what happens when I visit NYC next week and make my first ever visit to Pasteur's Pharmacy . . .