POLL: Retirees: How much did you spend on hobbies in 2013?

[athena53]

I didn't vote because it would probably skew the results; I suppose DH and I would consider travel to be a hobby and the trip we're taking in July will run over $8K, all in. That's not a typical year. Last year we went to Paris but used hotel and airline points, so the out-of-pocket was around $1,000 and we took a few smaller trips, too.

Other than that we don't spend a lot. I spend maybe $1K/year on entry fees for athletic events. This year it was one sprint triathlon and 2 (maybe 3) 50K bike rides. One requires that you raise $600; I don't like to hit people up for money so I just make a flat donation (and take it off on the taxes, of course).

 

[NW-Bound]

As Rambler said, in ER everything you do is a hobby!

Conversely, while still working, all your expenses are in direct or indirect support of that income-generation activity, else it could not be sustained.

A corollary to the above is that Congress should allow workers to deduct ALL expenses.

Oops! Can't have that. Somebody has to pay taxes, I forgot, and it's better not me.

 

[MBAustin]

I don't consider our RV travel or cooking a hobby (although perhaps buying accessories for the pasta machine DH gave me for my birthday last year is a bit hobby-ish).

My main hobbies are knitting (95% is prayer shawls to be given away by our church) and scrapbooking.

I buy most of the yarn for the shawls, $10-30 per shawl (depending on the yarn, pattern and how well I shop the sales), so that's about $300/year.

In 2013 I went to two scrapbooking events, about $350. Purchased about $200 of materials, photo prints, etc.

I'm happy that my hobbies produce things that are meaningful to others, which is priceless.