Every fun post on here that encourages people to have hobbies/be creative always gets an avalanche of “Some people are poor Karen” type reactions and respectfully, you’re all super annoying. I’ve never lived above the poverty line and this is a list of hobbies I have that were cheap or entirely free:
- Read books: Go to the library, lend a book from a friend
- knitting, crochet, embroidery: Get some needles from the bargan store and ask around, people have leftovers from projects they’ll happily give you. Thrift stores also often carry leftover fabric and other supplies. And talk about your hobby loud enough and an old lady will show up and gift you their whole collection, because there are way more old ladies with a closet full of wool than there are grandchildren who want to take up the hobby.
- Origami/paper crafts: get some scrap paper and scissors, watch a youtube tutorial
- walking: put on shoes open door
- pilates/yoga/etc: get a mat or just use your carpet, watch a youtube tutorial
- Houseplants: look online for people that swap plant cuttings. There are always people giving out stuff for free to get you started. If you’re nice enough you’ll probably get extra
- gardening: You’re gonna need some space for this one of course but you can just play around with seeds and cuttings from your grocery vegetables.
- aquarium keeping is a bit of an obscure one but I got most of my stuff second hand for cheap or free and now I have a few thousand euro worth of material and plants.
- drawing/art: You get very far just playing with bargan store materials. I did my entire art degree with mostly those.
- writing: Rotate a cow in your head for free
- cooking: again one you can make very expensive, but there are many budget recipes online for free. Look for African or Asian shops to get good rice and cheap spices.
- Join a non-profit: Cities will have creative organisations who let you use woodworking machines or screen presses or laser cutters or 3D printers etc etc etc for a small fee. Some libraries also lend out materials.
- candle making: You need some molds (cheap), wick, two old cooking pots for au bain marie melting and a ton of scrap candles, ask people to keep them aside for you.
- a herbarium, flower pressing: Leaves are free, wildflowers too, ask if you can take from peoples gardens.
- puzzles: thrift stores, your grandma probably
- Citizen science: look for projects in your area or get the iNaturalist app
And lastly and most importantly: Share! Share your supllies, share your knowledge. Surround yourself with other creative people and before you know it someone will give you a pot of homemade jam and when you want to paint your kabinet someone will have leftover paint in just the right color and you can give them a homemade candle in return and everyone is having fun and building skills and friendships and not a cent is exchanged. We have always lived like this, it’s what humans are build to do.
And all of it sure beats sitting behind a computer going “No stranger, I refuse to let myself have a good time.”
Anyway I’m logging off bc I’m making some badges for a friend who cooked for me and then I’m going to fix some holes in everyones clothes.
- Birdwatching - download a free app for identifying and/or logging and go for walks or hikes or just sit in your yard/at your window depending on where you live. (My biologist friend uses the Merlin Bird ID app for identifying and eBird for logging, so that’s what I got now that I’m getting into it. These apps are associated btw, both by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology). A cheap/basic pair of binoculars helps too.
- Crosswords and other word puzzles - lots of free sites
- Learn a language - Duolingo is free, among other apps
- Photography - Most people have smartphones these days that actually have decent enough cameras that could suffice for beginners and intermediates - the important part is your eye and the composition, etc. Plus there are free Photoshop-like sites for editing, like pixlr.com. Also you can find old, great quality DSLRs that still work for cheap! They’re not like cell phones lol; my Canon is almost 20 years old and works like a charm. And good ol’ YouTube University can give you beginner lessons if you don’t know what to look for or how to get started.
- Journaling (and/or bullet journaling)
- Read lyrics along with songs while listening to them. If you don’t have Spotify, there are tons of free lyric websites out there.
- Research an unfamiliar topic either online at home or at the library.
Also for any hobby or just life, there’s always the Buy Nothing Project and freecycle and Trash Nothing where people exchange things rather than throwing away stuff they don’t need!
There are a couple of things I’d like to add as someone poor in supplies and in time/energy:
Yes it takes more effort and practice to get a nice looking result with janky materials and there’s a learning curve about what supplies are actually a waste of your time.
Yes it’s harder to be motivated when you aren’t part of a group or the people you intended to follow in a hobby have the nice supplies.
Yes it’s harder to find tutorials that are rewarding when you’re not using the supplies they have or try to sell you.
It’s kind of like learning to enjoy going to a movie alone or learning a skill outside of a class or group: learning to enjoy learning, to embrace your mediocre first attempts, not see practice pieces as wasted time, getting motivated for yourself alone… it’s a skill, it’s an exercise in patience (in endurance even, for restless folks like me). But that’s also part of the fun: the challenge.
My biggest advice is to embrace that you’re going to make ugly things for a while but you’re also going to have more intuitive, inventive skills than the folks with the nice supplies. Someday soon you’re going to be the one who can do clever fixes, recycling and point out to newbies why and how they’re messing up because you’ve been there.
The other super important advice is to find where the other people making janky beginner things are and join them.
Instagram, tiktok and youtube will recommend product photography level videos of high skill with high end supplies. Avoid at all costs!!
It takes quite a bit of scrolling or finding one hobbiest on your level to follow and follow who they follow so I like to go to deviantart first and try and find folks on tumblr next (and crafting for kids/teens blogs) . For example: on deviantart they’ll have a low res step by step photo montage tutorial and you’ll get to see the unprofessional looking item they made and you won’t feel bad because that was an honest time when people put their ugly work up and you can see how they became really good at it a few years later.
[I am learning how to crochet. I’m dyspraxic and can’t think in 3d. It’s been a week doing a few hours a day: I’ve done more than a dozen mini samplers with this 3yd piece of just right yarn, taken a photo then pulled it apart. When I can do neat rows and a better coordination for tension, I’ll go find a simple thing to make on deviantart or a beginners crochet book on the internet archive library. There has been no dopamine rush, there have been a series of downers and *that* is where the power of spite kicks in.
I know 5 stitches, I *will* get their tension right and then I *will* make a thing and it might take a practice piece or two but that thing will give me my dopamine rush. And if crochet isn’t my jam after that I’ll try something else or go back to something practiced to the point of making satisfying things.]
Another option is to look at homemade gift lists from craft blogs (past and present) and see if there’s anything in your current supplies, recycling, ingredients that you could practice. (I had some felt, cardboard and beads and a single bead needle so I learned to make beaded brooches as seasonal gifts. Following fancy tutorials for the techniques but making my own thing.) Hand made gifts can be a way of easing into a hobby with a specific thing to make in a small time crunch (and you don’t have to give it to someone who won’t appreciate the work, you can do it for you).