Reduce your cost of shaving by following these steps

As ever on this website, we are not looking at wholesale changes to your lifestyle. Instead, we are focusing on the little things (the small steps) which can make a huge difference over time. Today, let’s look at the cost of shaving.

So fellas, yeah, y’all with me? Yeah!

What a grind it is, shaving. One of life’s little chores that (usually) has to be done. Here are some interesting shaving facts that will help us determine the cost of shaving:

• It is estimated that a man will shave at least 20,000 times in his lifetime.
• It is estimated that 90% of all adult males shave at least once a day.
• Religious convictions account for 7% of all men who don’t shave.
• 1.3 billion of the men in the world shave with a blade and razor.
• A man spends 3,300 hours or 138 days of his life shaving his whiskers.
• Just 1 per cent of men enjoy their daily shave, with 99 per cent regarding it as an annoying chore.

At a leading UK supermarket, the most expensive manual razor costs £20.00 and replacement blades cost £3.13 each. This is assuming we ignore the cost of the manual razor (it should theoretically last forever). It is recommended that the blades are changed approximately every 10-12 uses. This equates to 3 times per month if we shave every day. Therefore, the cost of shaving is £9.39 each month, or £112.68 per year.

Alternatively, the supermarket’s own brand of razor costs 3p each, equating to £1.08 per year.

The difference, when considered over 25 years including compound bank interest, amounts to approximately £6,400.

And all the ladies…

For women, it’s a similar tale. The expensive razor costs £10.99 and the blades £3.23 each. The supermarket’s own brand is 20p each. The cost of shaving for ladies is therefore similar, with a similar comparison to that above showing savings of over 25 years of £6,250.

You could reduce your cost of shaving to only $1 a month…

Don’t take my word for it. Watch this awesome commercial from Dollar Shave Club. The “dollar shave” has gained much popularity in forums and on the internet generally. I’m a big fan of Roger Federer, but as the commercial says, a large proportion of what you pay for expensive razors goes towards the advertisement budget paying sports stars such as Big Rog, Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry. Va va voom.

Money Saving Tips

• Dry your razor after every use. Water and dampness make razors rust and blunt more quickly. Personal-finance expert, Clark Howard, has used one single disposable razor for over 12 months. He does this by simply blotting it dry on a towel after every use.

• Clean razors after every use. As well water impacting the life of a razor, hair, grime and leftover shaving cream can significantly affect a razor’s life. Simply put, a clean razor will be a longer-lasting razor.

• Change to store-brand, disposable razors as these are of a very similar quality, but cost significantly less than well-known brand names.