I haven't calculated the savings over the last 6-7 years, but it has to be a lot, compared to shaving daily and going to the hairdresser.
All beards look scraggly as they grow at first, you need to give it time to properly fill in before you give up. If you can, let it grow wild for a month, resist the urge to cut or trim. Then you can start adjusting it.
The most important tips I got were to set the bottom edge right above your Adam's apple, make it mostly a straight line and feather it out, so you don't have a hard edge. Feather in the sideburns as well. For the cheeks, I prefer to keep them natural or just lightly trimmed, but it depends on how hirsute you are.
I buzz my head without the guard, to the shortest possible setting. I did shave my head for a while, but I decided it isn't really worth it.
It also takes the right genetics. Some of us will not have a real "beard" regardless of how much time we give it.
I still have about 150 blades left. The pack cost me <20USD including shipping from US->EU.
There's lots of discussion on shaving forums about exactly why they're called "labs", but as far as I know they're just regular double-edge blades.
I also prefer Feather. They cost about twice as much, but work much better on my tough stubble.
Examples:
https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/razor-blade-uncoated...
https://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/products/preparation/bl...
That razor recently broke, so it’s off to eBay again to find a replacement, since I have a box of blades. I refuse to pay for rip-off blades.
Someone told me that mid-rich people often group together to have a grocery accountant who will do their bulk shopping for them and it ends up costing them less than a supermarket prices for superior products.
Our groceries are the freshest, localist, most responsibily sourced and affordable in NYC 20-50% off other stores.
FoodCoop.com
Drop by for a tour and say hey if you do.
That's 19 boxes of these, which probably fit in a shoe box.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derby-100-Extra-Shaving-Blades/dp/B...
You can start potty training a kid at around one year's age though, which will decrease the need for diapers. That age depends on a kid of course, in my family it has started around when the kids learn to walk so age of 1-1.5.
Worked quite well. I added in audio cues after reading some Elimination Communication (EC) info.
3rd child, 2½ yo, will now poo & wee in potty a couple of times a day, and can tell us when he needs it. A good strong feedback loop, positive praise, no negativity about lack of "production".
Cloth nappies seem to accelerate potty training too (we've done cloth and compostable, solely the latter with current child), I think they can feel they wet themselves more easily, better feedback. If the nappy is so "good" they don't feel wet then there's no intrinsic incentive and no feedback.
As we did our version of baby sign (with parallel vocalisation) from c.6 months our eldest was able to tell us he needed the potty before he could talk.
Breastfeeding seems to make a positive difference with nappies and potty training too, I think the child has a healthier bowel and so perhaps more control, less gas, etc.
Modern diapers are so good that they're counter productive to potty training. The innards whick all the moisture so the child's bottom remains completely dry until it gets extremely saturated.
That is absurd. I wonder if the diaper companies wrote them?
We did something like 18 months which is far less impressive than yours but was not rocket science or anything. Maybe cheap diapers helped, as they don't feel as dry?
I suspect you may be right on both questions.
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/...
That being said, it's nearly impossible if you don't have a parent doing full time caregiving. No daycare will do it. My wife used to do it as a nanny, where she learned about it, but that's an outlier. Really not easy to navigate between you and your family or friends who have similar age kids!
It's certainly interesting to see the difference between countries in all baby things, e.g. UK, US, Italy, France and Japan.
- How long kids are in nappys.
- How much food you are recommended to eat when pregnant.
- What foods to avoid when pregnant.
- What foods to give to babies and when.
These all vary massively from country to country.
The Chinese use elimination training, or "potty on demand." You place the kid over the potty, make a specific sound they associate with going potty (you created the association previously) and they go. You then repeat this enough times in a day to eliminate the need for diapers.
I don't think elimination training is potty training. In potty training you're teaching the kid to tell YOU when they need to go, in elimination you are telling THEM when to go. Plus in potty training they're doing "active holding" whereas in elimination you're aiming for things to never get to that stage by going "potty on demand" enough throughout a day.
I think elimination training is very interesting and some parents have had great success mixing elimination with diapers to reduce the amount of accidents/cost. But even if they're trained on the elimination technique, they'd still need to be potty trained later, it just might be easier (since, again, you're asking them to tell you, rather than you tell them).
> we change him probably 6 times a day at least
Does not compute... 6 times a day is not 12 times a day.
Diaper pricing is dependent on how many you buy at once, I buy giant boxes so my unit cost is low. If you don’t have $40 to buy the giant box, but only $10 to buy a small package. You are paying twice the unit cost.