Used to "dry shave" with a Mach 3. Used to go through a cartridge in about 3 shaves. 
For Christmas, the hawtest woman on the planet went to The Art of Shaving and got me their starter kit - a badger hair brush, jar of shave cream, pre-shave essential oils, and after shave balm. Now, shaving 3x a week, I get a cleaner shave faster (I'm not spending as long knocking stubble clogs out of the blades) and my cartridges will last 3-4 weeks, on average.
That website offers some great tips:
http://brotherhood.theartofshaving.com/barbertipsRight before Christmas I picked up a store brand (some of you know the company I work for and we do sell quality stuff) razor that came with 12 refills. They were five blade razors and they work really well. My face can get scruffy and each refill has lasted over two weeks and up to a month. All for $19.99. I might run out before the end of the year but I have already feel that I have gotten my money's worth. In fact we had a couple ladies buy the same set. Normally just a package of 5 refills would be $8 which is still good compared to some of the name brands, but now I wish I would of purchased two of the deals.
I have found that Nivea gel shaving cream works the best for me and in the past I was strictly a Barabsol man.
Neutrogena and Nivea both have great products for those that break out after shaving and they are pretty economical. They also offer some great pre and post shaving items for your face. Here in Nevada where we don't have humidity it's pretty easy for your face to get all dried out.
That POS razor that Rick Harrison is selling on TV comes with crappy blades, then all of a sudden there was a demand for those types of blades again for retail stores.. One guy told me he bought one off TV and he could only get one shave per blade and the razor came with 12 double sided blades. The razor even looks plastic. Not like the old fashioned ones, that is for sure.