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That’s right, you can save a lot of money by avoiding the replacement razor blade scam perpetuated on the shaving public. Let me explain:

First, I picked up an old-fashioned safety razor at the flea market for two bucks. The design is similar to this one:

This thing is pretty simple: you rotate the base and the top opens, allowing you to place a double edge razor blade inside. After closing it, you have a razor which allows you to shave with a different edge on both sides.

The razor itself is not where you save money, however. After all, the razor and blades business model has long dictated selling razors at a loss to make all their profit on the blades. Razor manufacturers, once the patents on their latest razor model run out, bring out a new model to keep a monopoly on their proprietary replacement blades.

The classic safety razor is the solution to the outrageously priced proprietary blades. I stopped at the local Walmart to pick up a pack of blades. I glanced at the 10-packs of the currently marketed razor blades from the big manufacturers and the prices ranged from around $15-$23 per ten blades. In other words, anywhere from $1.50 to $2.30 per blade. For me, at an average cost of $2 per blade, that means I used to spend maybe $50 or so a year just on shaving blades.

I bought a ten pack of double edge blades at a total cost of $1.54, or 15 cents per double-sided blade. That’s a new cost per year of less than $4, down from $50.

I gave them a test spin and found they did a fine job at a cost of less than 1/10th what I was previously paying. I did find that shaving with the safety razor requires you to keep your wrist more rigid, but other than that, everything went very smooth, including the final result.

For some tips on the old-fashioned shaving approach, try here.

Hooray, beer!

I really like beer, especially good beer. Although it can be hard to enjoy when the all-seeing eye of frugality is staring a hole through you for paying $10 for a 12-ounce bottle of Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA. Even if you turn your back, you can feel its gaze centered right between your shoulder blades. It’s almost enough to put a man off his drink. Almost. But then the 20% alcohol kicks in and you tell frugality to beat it and go bug someone else.

I found a great rationalization solution, though, the home draft beer keg. There are any number of advantages to having a draft beer system in your home. First, there is the obvious cost savings per glass. Sellers claim cost savings of up to 50%, and that is certainly possible on some beers, especially if you are comparing 6 or 12 pack prices, but for premium beers, the savings may not be as great.

For example, at a price per glass, I can get Miller High Life (bottles) for around 60 cents per 12 ounces. A keg is in the $40-$50 range, and at 165 servings per keg, that works out to 25-30 cents per 12 ounces. If I go with microbrews, I save less, and if I go with German imports like Warsteiner, Spaten, Bitburger, etc., the savings sometimes drop down to 10%-15% for some reason. I guess it costs a fair penny for the brewer to ship it that far.

Note that the beer prices vary greatly among and even within states depending on the state laws and distributor set-up.

Other rationalizations advantages include: not paying those high bar prices, not worrying about drinking and driving, the hedonistic joy of having a fresh draft beer on demand (and yes, with your own system, it does taste better than cans and bottles), the ease of entertaining company, no cans or bottles to deal with, less trips to the store, your dog will love you more, you will become better looking, your kids will get better grades in school, and you will bring about world peace. Okay, maybe I got a little carried away with some of those. That’s just the breakfast India Pale Ale talking.

Downsides: the initial cost is a hundred and up depending on the setup you choose, so you have to factor that and the occasional cost of CO2 into your calculations. The upside is that the more you drink, the lower you can average down those start-up costs!

Now, I had actually purchased something like the Kegerator Conversion Kit with CO2 Tank, but like I detail below, you can get away with just getting a kit like this one:

I had an old fridge out in the garage that was not being used much, so I converted it into a kegerator. All it really took was drilling a hole through the door and installing the faucet. Then I got the CO2, hooked up the keg, and the first keg was pouring away. I would recommend NOT paying the extra for the CO2 tanks, because they are like your grill propane tanks, you just switch them out for filled ones, so that fancy tank you buy with a kit is pretty much useless unless you want to drop it off and have it filled overnight. Seemed like a hassle to me, so I just picked up one at a welding supply store and it only cost a few extra bucks by not having a tank to swap.

I hooked it up and everything worked like a champ. The first keg of Spaten only lasted 10 days, but I had made the mistake of inviting friends over on consecutive weekends to christen it.

One tip I learned from experience: DO NOT LOSE THE RECEIPT FOR YOUR KEG! Depending on where you live, you may have trouble getting your deposit back.

So give it a shot and the whole family can have a comforting draft beer before bed.

Let me tell you how to get the deal of the century.

I found a place and ordered 10 of the 100-watt replacement CFL’s. It cost me, counting shipping, $36 (bulbs $30 + shipping $6). At the time I ordered, that was about half the price I could get a comparable bulb at Walmart!

What’s the secret? They are sold by a non-profit group selling CFLs in an effort to save the environment. So you can save money and save the environment at the same time. Here’s the bulb that’s now shining throughout the Argonautica homestead:

It draws 23W and is designed as a 100W replacement. I have to say that it works brilliantly and fits almost anywhere an incandescent does. It cannot be used in dimmable fixtures, however.

These things really do work well, so much so that I even checked on a wholesale purchase to retail them myself. I found out that the non-profit is already selling them at wholesale prices! How could I compete with that? I couldn’t, so I’m letting everyone know about it.

The place you can get these is ecolightbulbs

Their service is excellent; two of the bulbs in my order must have had a rough transit even with the great packaging, because they weren’t working, but ecolightbulbs sent me replacements with no questions asked. Being a non-profit, they only mail out on weekends, so be patient when you order.