Like anything else it can be as cheap or expensive as you want to make it. At the risk of being booed out of the room, I think folks are a little delusional if you think you are going to save a lot of money. The upfront costs to start can be as little as, ballpark, $200.00 for 2 shave ready razors from the classifieds here, a decent used strop, a boar brush, some decent soap/cream and a hone to maintain razors. If you can stay at that level you will come ahead of the game but as you already found out most of us can't, including me. I don't kid myself any longer, I do it for a bunch of other reason and saving money is not one of them.

Bob