Fun "inexpensive" hobbies

[sroby2020]

Geocaching - (www.geocaching.com)


You can get a free online account, or pay $30/yr for premium features (worth it)

Use the GPS on your smartphone, so no extra cost there.


according to Wikipedia:

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world

 

[2lhasas]

I backpack and volunteer with my local trail club. Gear can cost a bit at the start, but once you have your set up, it's pretty cheap. Occasional expense to get new shoes, but it's mostly free but for the gas to get to a trail.

 

[luckydude]

Ahem... My personal history in this regard is none too admirable. Let's just say I haven't been a fiscally disciplined cyclist or photographer/birder over the years. Your friend who coughed up $2K on bike gear looks like a model of restraint to me.

Many of us on this forum find ourselves never richer, never healthier and never with more free time than just after retirement. The temptation to "blow that dough" on a new hobby can be overwhelming.

(Un)fortunately this has happened to me.

I started mountain biking in earnest after FIRE. At first I got an "average" $3k full suspense bike, but the more I rode, the more I learned about "better" equipment, riding style, and seeing other riders with better equipment, and allowed myself to be drawn into the endless cycle of "upgrades."

I ended up buying two more top-of-the-line cross country carbon hardtail mountain bikes, one for trail riding and one for more grave/cross country riding. That's $16,000. Then every year new equipment comes out and I've got to have the latest/lightest/best stuff, so I upgrade forks, wheels, handle bars, etc., etc.

My latest upgrade is a new fork for one of my carbon hardtails. I spent $900 for the fork which drops my bike weight to a feathery 19 lbs. But that's not good enough as I've gotten bitten by the "weight weenie" bug and am looking at a brand new pair of $3000 custom-built carbon wheels that would drop another 250 grams from my bike weight.

I figured that I've spent almost $35k on bikes and related gears and clothes since FIRE. I've got pro-level gears but I don't even race. Sometimes I look at the stuff that I've bought and just kind of shake my head. The saving grace is that I really enjoy riding. I ride 5-6 days a week, and try to hit 4k miles distance/500k feet elevation gain every year. I figure that if I enjoy the sports and have the means, I might as well get the best stuff money can buy to make my riding experience as fun and rewarding as possible.

And yeah, I'm probably going to get those $3000 custom-built carbon wheels for the bike

 

[Trailwalker]

There are quite a few hobbies where it’s possible to go high or low. I still regularly go on fifty mile rides on my 1983 Trek bike that was $300. Friends have long since upgraded, but I’m attached to the bike and have no desire to ride centuries anymore. If anything, I get a better workout from riding my slightly heavier bike. My wife has a lighter Cannondale that we purchased for about 300 from a friend who stopped riding. Both bikes have given us a lot of pleasure over the years.

 

[donheff]

There are quite a few hobbies where it’s possible to go high or low. I still regularly go on fifty mile rides on my 1983 Trek bike that was $300. Friends have long since upgraded, but I’m attached to the bike and have no desire to ride centuries anymore. If anything, I get a better workout from riding my slightly heavier bike. My wife has a lighter Cannondale that we purchased for about 300 from a friend who stopped riding. Both bikes have given us a lot of pleasure over the years.

I have a friend who has been riding his entire life. For many years it was his only transportation due to epilepsy. I knew he liked his old bike and kept it running over the years but yesterday he stopped by and I noticed for the first time that his shifters are on the downtube. That is old school. A properly maintained bike can ride forever.

 

[splitwdw]

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.

 

[Music Lover]

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.

 

[Philliefan33]

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.

 

[shafer9]

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.

 

[shafer9]

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.

 

[Music Lover]

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.

 

[Filetmerlot]

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.

 

[GreenEggs]

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

 

[stepford]

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"?

 

[doneat54]

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.

 

[JoeWras]

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.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

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.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

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.

 

[splitwdw]

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.

 

[stepford]

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.

 

[albundyz]

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).

 

[SoReady]

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!

 

[Bonesaw383]

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.

 

[EastWest Gal]

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.

 

[Philliefan33]

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.