The safety razor cost me $10 off of EBay. It’s a Concord brand one made in China. The blades are Dorco brand made in Korea and cost $1.50 for 10 of them. If you are counting the costs, I usually get 2 or 3 nice close shaves from each blade.

I also went with some shaving soap that I bought off the internet as well. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it before I started.

I had to learn a new style of shaving when I went with this safety razor. I do a first pass lightly just to get most of the stubble off and then do a second pass that gets just about all of it. The shave ends up being a lot closer than it was with disposable blades.

Cost wise? It’s a lot cheaper. Green wise? It’s a lot better for the environment. Instead of buying heavily packaged cartridges with lots of plastic and steel parts, I simply buy a steel blade that comes in a biodegradable package.

If you haven’t given much thought to moving over to a more traditional shave then you really need to think about it.

The old adage that it costs less money to leave fluorescent lights on than turn them off is just not correct anymore. In a pure energy savings basis, it’s better to turn off the lights even if you are leaving the room for a minute. The so called energy surge to turn on the lights lasts just 1/60 of a second.

If you factor in the cost of the bulbs and the extra wear and tear turning them on costs you, the time period for turning off when you leave the room is about 5 minutes in most of the US. That means if you are leaving the room for 5 minutes then you’ll save money by turning them off.

With many of the newest compact fluorescent bulbs, we can ignore the advice of even 5 minutes entirely. Our fluorescent has advanced that much.

Sometimes you’ll hear that lighting from fluorescent bulbs are not as real as the light from incandescent bulbs. That is just no longer the case. Daylight CF bulbs offer a very nice light and seem even better than the incandescent bulbs they have replaced.

Churches should be offering debt counseling. It is the Christian thing to do and prudent Christians watch their finances. Unfortunately, it seems like these churches are offering debt counseling that ignores biblical truths. Take a look at this quote:

The programs resemble secular plans, with two exceptions, said Dave Briggs, director of the Good Sense Stewardship Ministry at Willow Creek. “A secular adviser might say, it’s O.K. to stiff your creditors through bankruptcy,” Briggs said. “Biblically, bankruptcy is only an option if you need time and space to pay back what you owe.”

Excuse me, Mr. Briggs, but didn’t the Lord in all of his infinite wisdom provide people with the 7 year release. The 7 year release is God’s way of breaking the yoke of debt so that it isn’t all suffocating. Sure, you should pay back what you owe, but taking the 7 year release, in the form of bankruptcy, is an option that God and the legal system provide us.

Not counseling those to take what the Lord has offered is not very Christian-like in my opinion…I guess that’s why most churches would rather not have me attend them.

So are churches profiting off of this? You bet! Dave Ramsey, a radio host, is offering up a course in financial management for Christians. Awesome offer it is, is it? You’d expect a great program right?

At Southeast Christian Church, a video presentation featuring Ramsey was followed by an hour of discussion, mixing quotations from Proverbs with advice on buying used cars, time shares and generic drugs. The discussion was led by a retired police officer, Rusty Bittle, 43, who has no financial background but who paid $2,000 to take a 50-hour course to become a certified counselor for Ramsey’s program.

Mr. Rusty took a 50 hour course and now he is qualified to teach you Christian financial planning…. Woohoo!

I think I’ll pass…..