Can I clean my records manually?

Of course you can clean records manually. Even beter, utilize an old turntable and vacuum to make your own. Check out Chris Brady's recipe here: http://teresaudio.com/haven/

Scroll down the page to the link for DIY record cleaner.

I put one together for less than $30 and it works as well as any VPI or Loricraft costing many times more.

Cleaning fluid is a mix of isopropyl alcohol and distilled, deionized water.

Yes you must certainly can. Use a Disc Dr. pad, alcohol solution in a spray bottle and flannel rags to dry. It works very well. Lay the record on one flannel rag spray each side and brush well with the pad and then dry with the flannel rag.

Thanx gentlemen, can you give me the ratio of alcohol to water?.

Read the Record Playing Rituals stickied at the top of the page. There are tons of ideas on record cleaning there.

BTW, as you correctly surmised, the biggest risk in playing dirty records is not to your stylus. There will be some additional wear but unless you play very dirty records for very many hours the additional stylus wear is likely to be minimal.

No, the biggest risk is to your vinyl, and this is a serious risk indeed. Before I knew better I did audible damage to brand new (ie, not very dirty) records by playing them without cleaning. It is no exaggeration to say that a single play before cleaning can permanently mar a a vinyl LP. This is 100x truer if the record is used and dirty.

Vacuum cleaning is the way to go and, as Flyingred pointed out, it needn't be expensive to get into. Search the archives here and on VA for dozens of inexpensive DIY RCM's.