there has to be a list of hobbies one can try that cost practically nothing:
Solving Rubik cubes (a high quality speedcube is about 20$)
Crocheting/stitching (needles and yarn after cheap)
Writing (free)
programming
… (please expand if you have any ideas)
Not no-cost but cooking, gotta feed yourself anyway might as well have fun with it
Cooking is cost negative relative to eating out. You just need a decent kitchen and plenty of free time
D&D costs $90 for the hard cover core book set and $0 for the pirated pdfs.
Biking can have a high upfront cost, but I’ve been using the same bike for 20 years with tune-ups and replacements running in the low three figures over that time.
I’m a big fan of podcasts, particularly ones that cover old movies. Criterion collection films are everywhere, they’re dirt cheap, and they’re classics for a reason.
There are cheaper and better TTRPGs.
Not much is cheaper than free
All the other ones also have copies floating on the great seas, and some are just plain free
Sure. But those are the ones I’m most inclined to pay for.
Okay but you didn’t lead with free and as someone else pointed out that’s a moot point when you’re pirating.
SJ Games has GURPS Lite, a free version of their 4th edition. It’s very simplified, but easily playable.
Hiking? I mean, the world is just out there.
Other outside activities that need minimal equipment come to mind. You ever played discgolf? Or went running? Or geocaching?
But yeah, lots of activities aren’t expensive. Draw something. Paint something. Sing! Or do some sports! Yoga only requires a mat if you do it naked.
although the entry bar is theoretically non existent. practically? not really.
Software development is free if you already have a computer
Drawing (we should stop pretending one need expensive material do draw nice things, pencils and erasers are the only requirement, and a good sketch book can be found for less than 15 bucks)
who even says that drawing is expensive? it’s so obviously cheap thing to do. we did it so much as children. if it was expensive no kids would be allowed to draw
I see some influencers bragging about why you’d need quality markers like posca to improve your drawing skills. My bros fell for it and beg me to buy some for them.
It’s like thoses ads telling you you need product to do thing better. Even if it’s quality, it doesn’t work this way.
I bought a $25 set of 8 for them. They used it 2 times then stopped because they couldn’t make what they wanted. They are now asking for a light tablet to “draw better”. They will have to buy it themselves if they really want it. I was fine with the window light when i was their age.
People somehow always find a way to make the simplest thing expensive with half-useless material.
Amen. You have to stay away from that toxic commercialisation. It messes with your brain and stalls your progress in any hobby.
I think one of the best things about arts, crafts, sports, music and the like is that it has a built in resistance to that kind of commercial takeover. Having good pens will not make you better at art, good shoes won’t make you better at soccer, a fancier gym won’t give you bigger muscles. These things come from hard work, perseverance, dedication. You can’t buy skill no matter goes much money you have, I love that.
I do like using nice tools though, although they are overkill for most hobbyist purposes.
I’d probably only buy quality tools if I could afford it, even if I wouldn’t need them necessarily.
That ain’t bragging that’s product placement. they ruin everything they touch.
Just look into anything that professional artists use. I have had the privilege of using my mom’s coloring pencils ever since I was around 5, and the full package (120 pencils) of those is almost 500€. I don’t use fancy drawing papers, but those are expensive as well.
every hobby can be as expensive as you want it to be. the cost ceiling is however much the richest person doing that hobby is willing to spend.
if 2 billionaires want to get into drawing as they are willing to spend a million for a box of fancy cryons, those products will appear in the market. even though they’ll be marginally better than those 500$ onces
but the question was about the cost of entry. and with drawing, the cost is negligible
“needles/yarn after cheap”
That’s a lie. My wife is into knitting and crochet, I’ve seen $300 purchases for yarn only, for just one dress. Not to mention $50-100 needles or swifts or yarn caking tools
I got caught up on that too.
I don’t do anything with yarn, but will sometimes use fabric to make puppets and other toys with my kid.
Even buying the cheapest fabric from the lowest priced outlets (cheaper than even the random alphabet soup brands on amazon) in bulk, it adds up so fast when you’re actually creating things!
IMO piracy and self hosting has great cost benefits.
Sure it costs money to buy a mini computer and a hard drive, but after, you can spend a long time building that library and it won’t cost you a dime.
And the computer and hard drive is more like an asset, you don’t really lose money when you buy it.
And it kind of pays you back, eventually you get a little tired of building your library but then you can use said library and integrate it into your lifestyle while you get a new obsession.
also, there’s a high when you hoard data like a dragon
And what’s great about it is that it’s a positive sum game, you being a data dragon only ensures it’s easier for others (seeding and it becoming a trend).
Basic concepts like property or ownership make absolutely no sense in the digital world.
By letting people hoard files like a greedy dragon those files are infinitely more available to everyone, in a decentralized network that is free to use and is superior (in content, efficiency, speed, cost) to every for profit company that streams content.
but that smoking monkey was mine i tells ya mine
music, cooking, public librarying (that’s too complicated for one post)
Ceramics is stupidly cheap to get into. All the tools can be replaced with your hands and a needle, finding workable clay in nature is stupidly easy if you know what to look for and even the garbage clay can be made usable. Most ceramic shops let you rent a shelf on the kiln for like $5. Your first ceramic statue is literally 2 hours of research and $5 away no matter where you are in the world.
finding workable clay in nature is stupidly easy if you know what to look for
Workable clay may be hundreds of kilometers away, depending on where you live.
I mean, I’m in the Netherlands, i literally can’t avoid the stuff, but not everyone lives in a giant river delta.
like me. i live in two giant river deltas. we have clay for days here. one time, this punk kid brought a pit bull to the neighbors and it attacked my cat. this cat had beaten up a lot of dogs including a retired police german shepherd, so it just stared down the dog. then got shook around like a ragdoll while it removed much of the dog’s face.
worst punishment we could think of was making the kid dig the grave. after two inches you hit clay. we made him go four feet deep. never saw him with a dog again, so between us and his parents something stuck.
So I’m stretching the term “nature” here because when I was posting this I actually completely forgot about real natural clay by rivers. You can also get workable clay from any large amount of sand over dirt that’s gotten wet enough times. The water pulls silica out of the sand and into the earth over time, then you can wash it to get the extra crap out, decant off the water, dry the slip, and boom clay.
Some of the best clay I’ve used came from under an old school playground.
There are plenty of hobbies where you can happily enjoy it and only ever spend little if anything.
On the other hand, I’ve found it’s pretty uncommon to find a hobby where you can’t optionally fall down an expensive rabbit-hole of some kind, usually around any kind of equipment or tools you might need as part of some hobby.
Thankfully for most hobbies that kind of thing is not required to enjoy it. You don’t need a fancy guitar to enjoy playing; you can read books from the library, you don’t need to collect your own; in most big enough cities (in Europe at least) you don’t even need to own a bike to go for a cycle (though regularly using bike rental schemes might be a sign to try and get a bike, doesn’t need to be fancy)
all hobbies have a cost floor for entry and a cost ceiling. one is the actual cost, and the other one is a made up number based on the richest person who does that hobby.
Entirely seriously, learn how to make a game in Godot.
Its literally completely free, only costs you time, and assumes you have at least some kind of existing computer, doesn’t need to be a monster rig.
Alternatively: Find a video game you like.
Make mods for it.
Here’s another one that’s basically free:
Becoming/Staying fit, gaining strength and agility.
Make ‘weights’ out of milk jugs with water in them.
Maybe get a resistance band or two, they’re not that pricey.
You can absolutely do a ton of stretches, calisthenics, and light to modetate muscle group workouts with basically just random shit lying around a typical home or apartment.
You can find basic guides for these excercises often just freely available from reputable medical organizations.
You can literally just go on a 20 minute walk, 3 times a week, and be in better physical shape than something like half of the US adult population.
Back to computer shit:
Blender is free.
Learn 3D modelling, rigging, UV wrapping, how texturing works, how to make animations, etc.
Same with Krita.
Become artist. Draw stuff good.
You can find probably literally millions of free tutorials for how to do basic and intermediate level concepts.
Whsitling/Singing/Voice Acting.
These are developable skills much more so than they are just… things you either can or cannot do, for some reason.
You can teach yourself how to do these, again to a basic or intermediate level, for pretty much free.
Same thing with at least some kinds of dancing.
If you’re feeling more EXTREME: Parkour and/or Urbex.
Lockpicking.
Go find the Lockpicking Lawyer on youtube.
Pretty sure he can recommend you a not too pricey basic starter kit for learning the basics.
… I could go on, but my hands are tired from what I’m going to call ‘autism posting’, one of my totally free, personal hobbies that I often indulge in.
Papercraft is pretty cool. If you have some thick card stock paper, a printer, a knife, and some glue, you can find 3D designs online for almost anything. I made an IL2 Sturmovik.
Cooking is basically better than free.
Yes, ingredients and equipment cost money, but the end result averages out to be cheaper than if you didn’t know how to cook. And even if you take on more expensive ingredients or tools, you’re probably offsetting even more expensive restaurant meals that you would’ve eaten.
Birdwatching. You can buy a book and binoculars if you like. The app Merlin is somewhat free to ID Birdwatching calls. Birdseed can get expensive or just plant sunflowers.
Wildflower identification. Best in early spring, Phone apps make this a little too easy. Seed collecting and propagation is my next goal. I also pull up invasive plants, mostly garlic mustard.
Gardening. Seeds are cheap but if want to start indoors you’ll need a light and possibly a heat mat. Start outdoors in a makeshift “greenhouse” using a clear plastic jug. Starter plants are cheap
Well, strangling animals, golf and masturbating.
Golf??
I lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, the birthplace of golf, the barrier to entry was non existent. Practically everyone there golfs. when it is a nice day they just walk to the nearest golf course (there are like 6 in the city itself), and play, stick collection? you just need like 3 to begin and you can get the from charity shops for like £40. No one uses those eclectic golf carts they see them as abominations and ruins the sport (the whole point is to walk about 5 km, if you skip that then it is not a sport, they are allowed in some places for accessibility).
In the rest of the world? rich people sport
all of those are non like the others
Choking the chicken? It’s two hobbies in one
Reading (libraries)
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Any art or craft or sport is pretty much free when you weigh up the hours vs the outlay required.
Except skiing and motorsports. That eats money.
or boating, or equestrianism, or space travel.
Skiing can be cheap if you just happen to be local to where you want to go. Used equipment can be cheap and last a long while and season tickets can be a good bargain on a per day basis at that point. I used to do that when I lived basically on a ski mountain.
But then you catch the bug and then you have to plan out $2000+ trips just to be able to do that once after you move away.
Disc golf can be really cheap so long as you just stick to the basics. Lots of free courses or courses that cost like $5 if they’re nice. Basically spent $50 once and then nothing past that. Found a some free discs too that didn’t have any owner identification on them :)
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My hobby is buying materials for projects and then not doing the projects.
Ah, a fine hobby indeed! I have so many arduinos, pis, and various modules strewn about with little to show for it.
Is this the more adult version of buying games on Steam and never playing them?
yes, but I do that too.
As an amateur radio operator, I can confirm this as factual. Over.
MTG really fits the shoveling cash into a furnace thing
Unfortunately yes. I used to play many years ago, loved (and still love) the game format. But after the release of modern masters at the price they did, I knew things would never get better. Wizards and Hasbro are in on the card evaluation market. They could, at ANY time, squash it. They decided to foster it
I consider myself lucky.
When my friends were first trying to persuade me to get into MtG I went to a LGS to get a starter pack.
A guy came in with a sports bag full of ‘his green swaps’ to see what price he could get for them.
That was the point where I realised I’d dip my toe in the water but this wasn’t going to be a serious hobby for me.
Yeah… I recently built my first drone.
I wanted to kill a rat in my garden, so I borrowed my parents’ air rifle. but the scope was too tiny to be any use at night, so I bought an air rifle with a bigger scope. but that rifle sucked and an internal part broke, so I bought a proper one. but I still have the crappy one and want to tinker with it, so I printed some replacement parts. but I want to make proper replacement parts that will withstand impact abuse, so I need to turn them on a lathe. but my lathe is just a wood lathe, so I designed and printed a four jaw chuck. but it’s not any good for parts requiring more than one setup, so I bought a cheap real 3 jaw chuck. but it didn’t come with the adapter plate to mount to my spindle, so I tried to buy one. but there doesn’t seem to be any suitable adapter plate for sale that will fit both my chuck and my spindle (there’s one that is close, but would require machining to make it fit - machining that I can’t do without a lathe), so I decided I’ll just drill mount holes through my existing faceplate. but that faceplate isn’t true with the shaft, so if I want to mount my chuck on it and have it be useful then I need to turn it true. but I don’t have carbide tools for metal lathing, so I needed to buy some. and I need to locate the holes that I need to drill to mount the chuck, so I drew up and am printing an template. and that’s where I’m at right now, waiting for that to finish printing, so I can center punch the bolt holes.
so that I can mount a chuck, to turn a replacement part for an air rifle that isn’t even ‘the good one’, to shoot a rat that is digging in my garden and making holes in my yard that’ll twist my ankle eventually
hobbies huh.
And the next thing you know you’re shaving a yak for some reason
one thing that makes me feel better about tasks like this is that I try to double them up with general cleanup
I made a mess of my garage fiddling with all the lathe stuff, but when I cleaned that up, I also did two other outstanding cleanup tasks in there, so it’s a net positive.
well, except for the wallet
new chuck works great, though. now if only I had a carriage and crosslide setup so I didn’t have to turn parts by hand like on a wood lathe, then I could get more accurate parts…
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear henry, dear henry.
“Turn your hobby into a business!”, they said. “It’ll be fun!”, they said.
For over a year I’ve tried to sell jewelry I made mostly because the proper materials cost so much, but there isn’t any-fucking-where where you can sell crafts without being a professional for a fair price that covers all materials and gives tiny compensation for the time and work.
You may have already looked into it and I’m not sure what the farmer’s market scene is where you are but I often see small scale makers selling wares at mine!
Hmm… Well I could look into markets, but I’m not sure how hard it’s going to be to get a table.
Another idea could be to see if local small businesses would be willing to sell your wares! I’ve seen stuff like handmade earrings and trinkets for sale at the register at small coffee shops in my town, plenty of other businesses also have paintings and photographs by local artists on the walls for sale. I have no insight on those agreements are made but I’d imagine they would ask for a commission.
Software development is cheap, if you already own a PC, which is the most expensive part if you go with open source tools.
And here’s me thinking software development is a career 😭 good for you though. How did you get into it as a hobby?
Learned it in college, first hated it because Java + webapps + PHP, then I discovered system programming through game development.
Looks at ever growing pile of retro handhelds, tabletop miniatures and BDSM gear
Surely, it cannot.
Gaming is my hobby. I bought an Xbox Series S for $250 on sale 4 years ago. I buy a couple games on sale each year for usually less than $30. It’s not a lot of money, but I also don’t have a lot of money.
Warhammer 40k has entered the chat.
Piracy saves money if you’re already paying for subscriptions. Self hosting adds another way to save money.
But I can’t pirate salt water aquarium fish and corals.
yet
No fishing pole?
Landlocked state. Best I can do is pond, lake, and river fish, definitrly not corals. I would like to try bryozoans in my freshwater tank.
i thought you wrote “self hosting ads” which would be an interesting choice
Yeah, imagine the situation of “I don’t want anyone else’s ads, I’ll host my own and look at them by myself”.
Probably helped of the common misspelling of “ads” as “adds”.
How does one pirate porcelain, a wheel, and oxblood glaze?
5 finger discount
Not very easy to slip either one of these into your pocket:
This is less of a ADHD episode and more of a business venture that requires a small business loan. I say buy it and expense it on your taxes as equipment.
Piracy saves money
Precisely. I don’t see torrenting wrong if you really can’t afford digital streaming or games. Netflix has made piracy less popular when it first came out, but with the proliferation of copy cat rival services, piracy became vogue again.
I prefer not to torrent games unless the game is owned by huge asshole companies like EA or Ubisoft. These big companies could absorb financial losses from torrenting because there are always idiots who will pay for their bog standard games. Small devs should be supported instead (also, small time filmmakers should be supported by paying to see their movies as well).
My friends think I am rich despite circumstances. But no, I just save money by torrenting. I use the money that I don’t buy essentials with, on learning new skills, socialising and developing hobbies. My rule of not buying new games until I clear a portion of my backlog is working on not going on impulse buying that my friends tend to do. A couple of my friends are pretty frivolous and complain when they don’t have savings. A lot of younger folks still think that the environment that allowed boomers to spend money and enjoy their youths, buy a house, get married and then raise a family with couple of kids still applies. Now, we have to sacrifice one over the other and this is what I have been telling people in my generation.
I pay for games on steam because if it’s bad, I can get a refund.
I thought it said what having a hobby does to a MILF.
Nothing empties a wallet faster than ‘I’m just trying it out.
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I’ve been into calligraphy for years now - it’s a wonderful hobby with anywhere between absolutely none (pseudocalligraphy with a pencil/bic) and a very low cost to entry (blackletter with a parallel pen) that I seriously encourage anyone to try out! Just be warned that it’s a gateway drug to the fountain pen hobby, which uh.
…
…
quickly becomes a not-cheap hobby. Good god.What paper you use? I’ve tried Rhodia and quite like it
I’ve found Rhodia is very inconsistent with their production quality (and I don’t love waxed papers), but for flip notebooks/sketchbooks they’re a solid choice.
For calligraphy, Tomoe River is a classic (even after the whole sanzen drama its still great paper), but I also really love Iroful, Canson Imagine 200gsm, and any of the Strathmore Mixed Media papers. It depends on the ink I’m using and the effect I’m going for, really, but if I had to pick one Iroful is probably the best all-round calligraphy paper (better shading than TR but with less impressive sheening)
I got into self hosting a while back
EOL enterprise equipment can be very thrifty. But if you ever need something specialty that isn’t available in the second hand market, good luck.
And watch that electricity bill, adding a bunch of hardware to play around with and your utility company suddenly thinks there must be an additional person living there…
I used to run a grow room in my basement, with about 4kw of equipment, so running my systems all hooked up through a 2kw PSU is actually a step back in cost. lol
hold on I need to self host amethyst beads and brass wire
