The Modern Luddite

The “latte factor” refers to the cumulative cost of purchasing coffee from high-street vendors. Every morning you visit Pret, Starbucks, or Costa for your tall-skinny-mocha-frappucino, you fork out a little. Maybe £1 or £2, maybe more? But if you’re like me, that’s every morning, and quite often at lunch time as well. So maybe that’s £4 per day. And that’s £20 per week, if you only do it on weekdays! Of course it doesn’t stop there. Think of the amount you spend on sandwiches at lunchtime. Maybe another £5 per day? On top of that coffee, that’s going to add up to £40-£50 per week! That’s a silly amount of cash, and that’s the latte factor. So how can you reduce it? (more…)

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I’ve often wondered what is the most efficient way of heating up food, microwave or conventional oven? And what about heating water, which is most efficient: microwave; electric kettle; or stove? Which uses the least power, and hence saves the most cash? (more…)

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Just to let people know what’s coming up, here are a few subjects about which I’ll be writing:

• Grow your own food.
• Stop watching TV.
• Keeping fit without going to a gym.
• Entertainments, diversions, and parlour games.

There’s plenty to write about among that lot. If you have any experiences or tips you wish to share, then write a comment here.

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Now before I go any further, I should point out that this is about shaving the face, nowhere else on the body. If anyone has any experience of a Modern Luddite shave in more personal areas, please leave a comment or drop me an email. Just because I don’t know anything about it there’s no reason not to spread the good news.

In case it’s relevant, I am a white gentleman with dark hair, and I don’t currently have a full beard, although I could probably grow one. If I shave carelessly I develop “razor rash” very easily, and so I’ve long experimented with various shaving techniques. Recently I was delighted to find that I could reduce the extortionate amount of cash I was spending on shaving equipment, reduce my razor rash, and still get a decent shave. In summary, here’s the solution that worked for me: (more…)

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