Hey guys,

Very brief backstory (a bit more in my intro post), I'm in Addiction Recovery. This is actually what has brought me here as a crucial part of my recovery is taking time for myself and taking care of myself (in my addiction, I rarely shaved as taking 10-15 mins for myself felt like a waste of time). Both the aspect of learning a skill and taking more time to take care of myself have me excited to include regular shaving as part of my recovery.

Why do I introduce this? My therapy costs are already pushing the limits of our family budget, so disposable income is not really available. I bring this up to clarify why I have a need to watch costs, and avoid answers that I will just have to dig down and open the purse strings a bit more.

With that said, I have read some of the guides and posts here and had the idea that the most affordable way for me to get started would be to purchase an inexpensive Shave-Ready Razor from the Classifeds here, and get myself a strop (I'm still not sure the best place to get this on a budget, the least expensive I've seen perusing links was $45; maybe that is the best I can get and I'll have to make that work) any advice of budget strops appreciated.

The real question I have is can I get away without the brush, soap, mug etc.? My idea is to use shaving cream in the mean time. I know I will enjoy learning and adding that part to the process, but the cost of razor and strop alone already have me struggling, so if I can put off that expense for a little while it would be great. I do at least have a really good shaving cream that my wife gave me, that isn't the standard drug store can crap, but made with more natural ingredients and works amazingly well. Just switching to it with a disposable razor has already made a night and day difference in my shaves. So I was hoping that might be workable until I can afford to upgrade to the brush soap combo.

Thank you for your time, this seems like a great and well informed community and I appreciate your feedback.