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Old 03-24-2021, 06:47 AM   #81
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Hiking.
Volunteering not just at weekly/monthly places/events. My dad volunteers at air shows once or twice a year. He gets free admission to the show and free meals/water on his shift. My brother-in-law maintains a section of the Appalachian Trail a couple times a year. Another brother-in-law volunteers at music fests in his area and gets free tickets to see different artists and free meals. Some of these volunteer jobs you start at the bottom of the volunteer jobs like trash pickup, car parking, seating attendant. Actually seating attendant is probably one of the better jobs at the music fest.
Copper metal work can be started without a lot of expensive equipment. You can use a plumber's torch from Home Depot to anneal, a few cheap hammers from Harbor Freight even the "forming" hammers from Contenti Supply aren't that expensive, make "forming/forging" blocks from pieces of wood, "dishing" stump for making bowls/platters made from a tree stump. When you finish forming your piece, you can cut out designs with a jewelers saw, use a drill to add a pattern, etch the metal with acids, use colored pencils to add some color. You can make some great copper jewelry too just make sure you use sterling silver chains and ear wires so you don't end up with green skin from a copper chain or copper ear wires.
Baking is one of my sister's favorite new pandemic hobbies. We are all 5 pounds heavier due to her fantastic cakes. She made a chocolate layer cake with some kind of whipped cream and raspberry filling that is to die for.
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Old 03-24-2021, 06:55 AM   #82
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There are quite a few hobbies where it’s possible to go high or low.
I know someone who used to own 42 guitars, many of them expensive. Probably $50,000 worth. But I guess he's more of a collector rather than a hobbyist.

On the other hand, I play and gig regularly (well, before Covid I did) but I have a minimal a mount of gear...just enough to rehearse and play out with and a dependable backup rig. My gigging bass gear is worth about $4000 and I have $800 of stuff as backup. But I could easily get by with 2 sets of $800 gear and no one would be able to hear the difference.
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Old 03-24-2021, 06:55 AM   #83
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Absolutely - avoid "gear wars" - and "accessories wars". I bought a good used road bike for $400 and ride in regular sports clothes.



My buddy bought a $1,500 road bike and then spent several more hundred on "cycling outfits".


You at least need to buy some padded cycling shorts. Your bottom will thank you and you will be able to ride longer.
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Old 03-24-2021, 07:07 AM   #84
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Take up an instrument. You can get a decent guitar for 300 or $400. You can get an electronic keyboard for about the same. You could spend money on lessons but there are thousands of YouTube videos available for free that will teach you the basics of actually learning to play.
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Old 03-24-2021, 07:09 AM   #85
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Originally Posted by Music Lover View Post
I know someone who used to own 42 guitars, many of them expensive. Probably $50,000 worth. But I guess he's more of a collector rather than a hobbyist.

On the other hand, I play and gig regularly (well, before Covid I did) but I have a minimal a mount of gear...just enough to rehearse and play out with and a dependable backup rig. My gigging bass gear is worth about $4000 and I have $800 of stuff as backup. But I could easily get by with 2 sets of $800 gear and no one would be able to hear the difference.
Me too.
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Old 03-24-2021, 07:19 AM   #86
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Take up an instrument. You can get a decent guitar for 300 or $400. You can get an electronic keyboard for about the same. You could spend money on lessons but there are thousands of YouTube videos available for free that will teach you the basics of actually learning to play.
Most people learning to play guitar or keys would greatly benefit from a few lessons so they can be shown proper hand position and technique. But after they learn the basics there certainly are a lot of good free resources on YouTube and other places.
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Old 03-24-2021, 07:26 AM   #87
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Balloon twisting.

a hand pump is $5 and a bag of 260's is about $15-20. each balloon animal, hat, sword, etc. generally takes 1-4 balloons. I go through a few bags a year with entertaining kids and practicing new designs.
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Old 03-24-2021, 08:31 AM   #88
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This thread has a wide variety of replies. Some of them made me wonder "what is the definition of a hobby?". Many of the replies, like sports or volunteering, didn't seem to really fit into the hobby category in my mind. So, I Googled the word hobby to see what the definition is.

Hobby:
"A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time, not professionally or for pay."

So, that pretty much covers anything you can name.

Here's a Wikipedia list. (It's really long, so I'm just posting the link.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies
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Old 03-24-2021, 08:52 AM   #89
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Here's a Wikipedia list. (It's really long, so I'm just posting the link.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies

Interesting list, but maddeningly incomplete. Most outdoor activities like birding, hiking, leaf-peeping and most sports are absent. Even so it looks like I've pretty actively pursued about 15 of the listed hobbies at one time or another. What's everyone else's "H number"?
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Old 03-24-2021, 09:02 AM   #90
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I work on old cars as my hobby. While it can be expensive, I actually make money when I sell a vehicle. Of course my labor is less than min wage. But I also get to have fun driving the vehicle for a while.
So it can be costly during the process, however those funds are recovered later. Let's not add in the tools cost or detached garage costs, LOL. Agree that it can be hard work at times. For sure if you can't do work yourself, old cars are a very expensive hobby.

Agreed. I have been a vintage car hobbyist restorer for 30+ years. Invested some serious $$ in them, but never lost a dime when selling. Also started a web business restoring some very expensive parts of vintage VWs as well as making some parts for them that previously were unavailable. A little more than half of that business comes from outside the US.

Also became an avid hiker when I FIRE'd 4+ years ago. My first pair of $200 boots lasted around 1500 miles. Lost 25 lbs too, and have kept it off. Did 528 miles last year, 99% on wooded trails.

Lastly, I will mention that my new love of cooking and wine pairing probably has upped the spending. Especially with the pandemic, I've denied myself nothing when it comes to food and drink. Probably at least once a week, I'll make a dish with a $20/lb protein of some sort and DW and I will kill a $40 bottle of wine with it. But I file that one in the "life is short" category.
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Old 03-24-2021, 09:35 AM   #91
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Interesting list, but maddeningly incomplete. Most outdoor activities like birding, hiking, leaf-peeping and most sports are absent. Even so it looks like I've pretty actively pursued about 15 of the listed hobbies at one time or another. What's everyone else's "H number"?
Scroll down. There is a list under a subheading called Outdoors and Sports. They are included there.
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Old 03-24-2021, 09:41 AM   #92
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Re volunteering -- I've been working in the archives of a neat little city museum for a number of years. On one occasion, I ran across the personal file of a 19th-century congressman. In it were three nearly pristine invitations to presidential inaugural balls for Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland and Rutherford Hayes.

Also in the file was a little notebook the congressman's daughter used as a journal for a trip to Washington. In her 10-year-old hand she wrote about visits to the halls of Congress and other landmarks as well as the White House where, she wrote, "we had a nice chat with President Harrison." I still get a kick out of that.
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Old 03-24-2021, 10:22 AM   #93
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Personally, I find walking/hiking in and of itself pretty boring. But in combination with other activities, it makes for an inexpensive fun activity/hobby for me. For example, my trifecta would be walking to and around a festival while chatting with the missus/friends and playing a location-based game.
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Old 03-24-2021, 11:03 AM   #94
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Re volunteering -- I've been working in the archives of a neat little city museum for a number of years. On one occasion, I ran across the personal file of a 19th-century congressman. In it were three nearly pristine invitations to presidential inaugural balls for Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland and Rutherford Hayes.

Also in the file was a little notebook the congressman's daughter used as a journal for a trip to Washington. In her 10-year-old hand she wrote about visits to the halls of Congress and other landmarks as well as the White House where, she wrote, "we had a nice chat with President Harrison." I still get a kick out of that.

Wow, that sounds interesting.
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Old 03-24-2021, 12:18 PM   #95
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Scroll down. There is a list under a subheading called Outdoors and Sports. They are included there.
Cool! My H number just increased from 15 to 35.
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Old 03-24-2021, 12:23 PM   #96
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Hobby on the Cheap: Senior Softball, shoes $50, glove $40, borrow your teammate's bat.....

Hobbies on the expensive (for me): electric guitar ($220), amp ($140), mike ($60), mike stand ($20), guitar stand ($11), used apple mini mac with extras ($400), recording studio software ($0), voice lessons (give up).
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Old 03-24-2021, 01:11 PM   #97
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My cheapest hobby is geocaching. Mostly when I look for a hiking trail or even visiting a different city I'm searching for interesting geocaches.

My other hobby is pickleball. I can't get enough of this, except my body complains to me all the time about it. So to quiet down the body yelling at me I take a vacation from it once in a while... and go geocaching!
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Old 03-24-2021, 01:28 PM   #98
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Pickleball!!!!! Initial outlay $60-200. Free to play at many local parks. Drop in fee or Monthly membership at most YMCA’s, Rec Centers, Senior Centers and Racquet Clubs. Addicting and very social sport with great people everywhere you go.
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Old 03-24-2021, 01:45 PM   #99
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Haha - and I'm sure she gets a new one every other year!
I don't sew much but I have 70 year old Singer machine we inherited from my mother in law. I would consider a new one but I love being able to have one built into the cabinet and they don't make those any more.

Sewing machines are rather inexpensive, and last a long time.
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Old 03-24-2021, 03:00 PM   #100
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I don't sew much but I have 70 year old Singer machine we inherited from my mother in law. I would consider a new one but I love being able to have one built into the cabinet and they don't make those any more.



Sewing machines are rather inexpensive, and last a long time.


Machines can be inexpensive, but good machines with all the modern functions are not.

My “starter” machine was about $800. I’ve since added a machine to keep at our lake house ($1000) and a sit-down long arm machine for quilting ($3000 used, it would’ve been $6000 new).

My $800 and $1000 machines are on the low end. The fancy machines that have computers and do embroidery as well as regular sewing run $10,000 to $15,000.

As I explained to my husband when I replaced my $200 sewing machine from Costco with my first machine from the dealer: it’s like power tools. Sure, you can get the job done with the the cheapest tool, but the experience will be much better with a better tool.
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