When to stop spending?

wayne_m

wayne_m

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3,116
As I'm new to this lark I did my research and started with reasonable kit Muhler R89, Simpsons Badger brush (the cheapest one) and a blade tester pack. My intentions were to save money and hopefully get a better shave. Two weeks later I've blades coming out of my ears. I've got 3 soaps and creams. I've a Silvertip brush on its way and a new Ikon 102 slant and bulldog handle. An Edwin Jagger soap mug thingy for lathering. An Omega stand for the razor and brush and styptics, balms and god knows what else. The question is. How the heck is wet shaving cheaper? You have to laugh eh?
 
wayne mattison said:
As I'm new to this lark I did my research and started with reasonable kit Muhler R89, Simpsons Badger brush (the cheapest one) and a blade tester pack. My intentions were to save money and hopefully get a better shave. Two weeks later I've blades coming out of my ears. I've got 3 soaps and creams. I've a Silvertip brush on its way and a new Ikon 102 slant and bulldog handle. An Edwin Jagger soap mug thingy for lathering. An Omega stand for the razor and brush and styptics, balms and god knows what else. The question is. How the heck is wet shaving cheaper? You have to laugh eh?
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Nobody here has ever claimed that wet shaving is cheaper. You're only imagining that you read this somewhere. If you want to save money, grow a beard or get an electric razor :D
 
I wouldn't do that. However the lock is firmly on the moth storer for the foreseeable when it comes to shave stuff. I've a mountain to get through. The folk on here are really helpful and genorous with their surplus stuff. I will be too and hope to pass on things to new members as I have had given to me.
 
Stop buying consumables until they're used up (or deemed surplus to requirements). Once you realise how long it takes to burn through just one container of soap, you begin to appreciate that hoarding kilos of stock isn't particularly fruitful.

Continue to treewhale your way through hardware, mind you, although you may wish to impose a one in-one out policy on yourself. Do give yourself time (as in, dozens of shaves) to fully appreciate the worth of your new razors and brushes.

Basically, you will naturally find that you slow down. This happens with any hobby. What separates people is that some reach saturation point a couple of hundred quid in whereas others will sink several thousand.
 
Oh forgot to mention I've just bought some Floris soap and I must get a wooden bowl to put it in....... Where's that debit card ;)
 
One good thing (amongst many) of being involved in a site like TSR is that you can shift the stuff you don't like on the BST and buy more stuff with the money. As such, you can either buy new stuff knowing you can recoup a fair bit of the money, or if you are happy with buying second hand equipment, you can just keep swapping bits and bobs until you find a set up you are happy with.

....not that we ever stop buying at that point!!!!
 
I'm with Wayne on this. I bought the R89 and TOBS Sandalwood and a cheap EJ best badger brush in SMALL and found that I need a lather bowl or scuttle, blade bank, a bigger brush from Shavemac, Xpec crème, Messenier shaving paste, and perhaps a butterfly razor from Pall-Mall barbers website just for variety. Oh, and 100 Astra and Muhle blades. It quickly becomes apparent that TSR forum members have an income stream, and are not OAPs!

Nice bunch of guys, though. But beware of Nishy. I understand he's a major stockholder with Shavemac.
 
There's always a new rabbit hole to dive into especially when the professional enablers get their claws into you :) I have 30 razors. Luckily, I just missed out on that eclipse red ring on ebay so that 100 quid can be spent on food or something equally frivolous
 
Woah shares in Shavemac have risen! It must be all this fresh meat ;)
First thing to appreciate is when you start to enjoy the hobby (wet shaving) over other types, it is assumed that a more expensive product will yield greater results. This is not entirely accurate as you may know some products are just red herrings. Great thing about TSR is that you can filter these out through member's experiences. More a community to help you choose how far and wide you wish to go.

By the way I was warned about high end brushes from the guy I bought my first high end brush from (thanks Dipesh). Since buying a Paladin Chief I have gone on (within a year) to own and sell around 16 Shavemacs. The danger is being inquisitive. You find the best current brush maker (Shavemac IMO) and want to know how each brush feels. Danger!

If your smart the trick is making the hobby work for you as an earner as well as a pleasure.
 
I think with how well the BST section works, you don't have to worry too much about spending. If you're not happy, move it on. I look at it as gaining knowledge, learning what you like and don't like. It's about the endgame, razors, brushes, soaps, etc that you'll eventually end up buying, based on experience. Blades are a good example of this, use as many as possible until you know exactly what you are after. If you only ever buy and try the one, you'll never know what you could be missing out on. Good lesson in life generally!
 
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