A counter question to the guy who posted a similar question few hours ago, cause most of the answers weren’t helpful for someone like me, who doesn’t have much money😅.
Hiking, i just have to be there, the rest is free.
Hiking with some geocaching is great
Though, proper hiking shoes do make a big difference and are expensive.
But you can definitely start walking in nature for free. Just be warned that you will enjoy it and want to do more challenging trails, which will require at the very least proper shoes.
Hiking definitely is a simple hobby with a lot of exploring and experiencing fresh air. They only qualm I have is with accessibility, in the sense that you are required to own a car to drive out to parks and trails. Cars are a huge money pit and break down constantly, I wish I could get a bus from downtown to a state park and it would take less than 45 minutes.
Depending on where you live, interesting places could be pretty close. When I was new in my city, I sometimes took a tram or bus to the most remote stop, and just picked a direction to walk from there. Obviously exercise some common sense, and it won’t be the “scenic” route for the bs social media pictures, but it can be a pretty rewarding adventure.
Definitely an idea! There’s so many parks in my city but in different neighborhoods. I should ebike to them and park it and walk, bird watch, vibe (I just bought my first shrooms to try, so excited to do on my day off on Friday)
Yeah that’s the caveat, you just have to be there but the “being there” part is most likely an expensive one. And the best trail with great view is usually very much in the middle of nowhere, so very unlikely there will be a public transport going there. Still, there’s no reason for no public transport going to the green space within the city.
macramé was mentioned but I want to mention that if you see it you will think maybe it is hard but its literally doing the knot where you take two strings and loop them around each other so pulling the string just makes it tigheter. Also you can make a sling from it sized to fit something like a tennis ball or any other ball you have around and then you can take it to a tennis court (parks around me tend to have them) and then practice slinging it. Big plus to do with a dog.
My wife has been crocheting up a storm this past week. You do need yard and hooks, but as far as hobbies go, it’s pretty cheap.
I’ve been crocheting too! Making a huge granny square blanket. Easy, can zone out or watch/listen to stuff while I do it. It’s kind of cathartic.
Hiking can be nearly free especially on beginner trails that don’t require special equipment
Writing is something I hated in school but as I’ve gotten older it can be fun to kinda play god with peoples lives.
Cooking isn’t free but could actually save you money if you eat out a lot.
Cooking is actually a really good shout for people who have very limited culinary skills, you don’t need to become a master chef but learning the basics so that you can at some point just look in you’d fridge at a bunch of nearly expired produce and then make something of it.
You will save yourself bigtime cash cooking for yourself if that’s not something you do already fairly routinely
Being able to make a palatable meal with random ingredients that are going to go bad soon is a real skill and super useful. My wife is a master at it and I’ve been trying to get better at it too. I’ve found it pretty easy if it’s all produce but other ingredients absolutely can work too, most ingredients can work together in some capacity if you use them right. Vegetables are just the easiest for me, personally.
Writing fiction is so much fun.
When you start writing, you’re in control, but about 1/3 of the way through a longer story, the characters start taking over and leading the way, to the point that if you’re not careful, they’ll lead you astray from the story you want to write, and they’ll start writing their own story--which may or may not be a better story. If you’ve never experienced this, it’s surprising the first time it happens.
masturbation
And crying.
OP asked for free things that are fun. I don’t see how masturbation is “fun”.
Have you tried crying while you’re doing it?
☺️ At least 1 who understood it was a joke 😘
You again Cousin?
Check what physical goods your local library lets you check out. Some have tool libraries, creative spaces with access to artistic tools and supplies, kits to do citizen science, etc.
If you’re low income you might also qualify for free or low cost recreation programs through your county or city’s parks and recreation centers
Leisure walking, either urban or through nature. Though it destroys shoes
Just go barefoot! 😅
Earlier today I saw a post about a lady who received the “Minas Tirith” LotR LEGO set for her birthday. It looked huge, and costs ~US$650.
Now, I like LEGO just fine, as you can observe in my posting history, but I was thinking… instead of her spending countless hours laboriously following what must be a telephone-sized instruction book, only to get something in the end that’s noticeably different-looking from the scale models… why not build it (or something else) out of paper & cardboard, instead? It’s cheap as heck, a creative craft, can look really good as a finished, painted piece, and can even be sale-worthy.
Not all of these are masterpieces, but:
https://www.google.com/search?q=impressive+homemade+paper+and+cardboard+models&udm=2Obligation to say: Try out the competition. Q’man, BlueBrixx, Cada, Cobi. They are sooo much better than lego. And for a better price
They are sooo much better than lego.
Hmm, how so?
Less colour vomit, the sets have greater detail and dont break easily. Another thing is that LEGO has a high colour variety on the bricks. Eventhough they should all ne of the same colour. On largly mono colour sets you can see all shades of one colour eventhough it should be only one consistent colour. Price/Quality is greater. Look at it yourself: 1k in lego gets you the death
starfrisby. 1k with bluebrixx gets you a gigantic modular and highly detailed castle: Castle Blaustein/BluestoneThe LEGO Company has also turned into a company using the good old “Use as many lawyers as possible against competition and critique to keep up a monopoly”
Stargazing. Binoculars can let you see more but not necessary to start
A hidden cost of stargazing is the ability to see the stars.
Depending on climate, urban environment, light-pollution regulations in their area, access to transportation outside of a city, etc, they might not have free access to the stars
That shit is fucked. We need to reduce light in cities. Seeing the stars should be a basic right.
Drawing. A pencil, pen, eraser and paper are the type of stuff you could even steal from an office and people wouldn’t bother. Drawing for fun is mostly about just doing whatever or doing caricatures, the latter are great because if it sucks then it’s actually better 😆
Writing. Stories, reviews, fanfics, whatever. You posted here, so you already have everything needed. Literally any working computer will suffice if you prefer a bigger keyboard.
Going out and walking or jogging. Not to any specific place, just literally walking around the place you live, get to visually know the neighborhood. Not fun when it’s too hot outside. Related to walking, bodyweight exercises. Not really fun, but you don’t have to pay anything to workout. Some people make hobbies out of physical exercise, so ymmv.
To add: if pen and paper aren’t your thing you can create computer art with free programs like Blender. Or you can use something like FreeCAD to design objects that are easier bring into the real world via 3D printing or other machines available at most makerspaces (though those are materials and makerspaces will cost something).
That’s assuming the computer even runs those programs, plenty of budget choices don’t even support OpenGL3.
To add to the last point, you can find a humongous amount of instruction videos for any kind of bodyweight exercise on Youtube. Just start clicking around until you find something that works for you. Yoga or calisthenics might be a good place to start.
Geocaching
Being in a city, there could be lots of caches near you.
the geocaching website requires a subscription now…
You only have to pay for Premium.
is it not free?? That’s so lame if not.
Check out OpenCaching. It’s still budding, despite existing for a long time, but it’s a direct response to the commercial leanings of geocaching.com.
There’s instances of it for many different countries.
Sure about that? Seems still to be working for me as always (all caches accessible accept the “Premium” ones)
With the official app, you’re limited to difficulty 2.5 and below. This is why I recommend using c:geo
With the official app, you’re limited to difficulty 2.5 and below.
Really? Ok, that sucks.
I never used the app (which didn’t even exist when I started), but mainly website + downloads to my Garmin.
Nowadays only occasional casual caching using c:geo.
C:geo also has a lot of neat tools built in so it’s superior in every aspect. I have my state map downloaded on there, upload my hiking trail gpx, and download all the caches so I can cache with no cell reception
i mean those are still accessible as long as you find them, you just don’t get directions
That’s basically correct if they didn’t change their api/link behaviour.
During my more active GC time, I even made them into my personal D5s for a while, trying to find them by deduction and (the also accessible) previous finder comments alone.
I recommend you check out the open source c:geo app. It’s by far the best geocaching app and unlocks more of the caches the official app doesn’t, it also indexes opencaching caches as well
reading.
There you need to buy books unless you go to thenlibrary
or go to anna’s archive!!
So just go to the library. Lol. Or a second hand and get them super cheap
Or just pir… “Buy” epub files and read them on your phone.
There are a lot of Little Free Libraries in most towns these days, too. Take a walk, find a book, read the book, trade the book.
I always forgot library because it open only in weekdays.
You can pirate books.
Yes! Libraries are free, and awesome. Unless you don’t have one near you. Even then, used books can be had pretty cheap, and you can often find ebooks given out free or cheap. Plus stuff like Gutenburg and Standard Ebooks for older texts. Doesn’t take long to build up a stack of books you have no hope to finish reading!
I have a very weird relationship with reading. I either am not reading one, or I’m obsessively reading one. I’ve completed not so small books in 2 days, like project hail Mary. I completed animal farm in a day.
Great suggestion, but I need better time management while reading books.
There are some athletic activities that are free or only the cost of a ball (soccer, basketball, etc. though a court/field can help). Running, walking, etc.
Foraging. It costs almost nothing to learn about the plants that grow around you and what you can do with them. I’ve been doing it for about 5 years now, and spent maybe $80 on a good hori hori and $40 on a good mortar and pestle when I wanted to get serious. Neither of those are necessary to forage. A good field guide is something you can order at your local library. The main cost is time studying at home and on the field.
Here’s some amazing pesto I made with wild mustard garlic greens.
And the before picture
I can not recommend the hobby enough. I’m happy to try and answer any questions you might have.
This does sound very compelling, but how did you start?
Fell mouth first into a blueberry bush while hiking
When I go outside in a place that has plants I try to ID at least one that I don’t know. When I get a positive ID on it, I’ll look it up and sometimes it will have edible or medicinal properties.
I unfortunately live too deep inside the city to try that😅. There’s very little vegetation around.
I’m not sure where you are exactly but you’d be shocked. When I was last in New York I actually took an “Urban Foraging Tour”. They showed us these wild weeds that grow on stoops that apparently make a great tea.
I don’t forage as a hobby so obviously this is all just experience from one two hour tour I took like five years ago but still!
You would be surprised. Dandelion for example is a plant that thrives in cities, is entirely edible, and you can roast it’s taproot into a delicious coffee substitute.
I started out with dandelion actually. I made a whole plant tea out of it heat dried. It entirely transformed the plant into something that smelled delicious, almost this floral toasted honey smell.
Just don’t take from places where a lot of pets get walked, right next to roads, or sprayed. Wash everything and anything you take home throughly, and research research research before you start picking.
Oh man I got to enjoy a chicken of the woods mushroom for the first time last year and it was amazing. We enjoyed sumac tea all summer and have a bounty of hickory nuts this fall. I made wild riverbank grape jelly from grapes harvested from my mom’s backyard. Definitely need to be careful with ID’ing and never picking something you’re not 100% sure of but it’s liberating and satisfying.
Many forms of exercise can be done for free: calisthenics, running, (depending where you live) swimming, hiking, (if you have a bike) cycling.
Creative processes like writing, drawing, there are free programs where you can make music (LMMS has a competition section where you can listen to songs people have made with it).
There are free introductory courses and tutorials for learning things like coding or language learning.
Technically not free, but already need to cook, so there are new recipes you can try on a budget.
Reading is of course free too.
