My hobby is hobbies. I start something spend whatever money I want whilst it entertains me and then drop it without reason and move on to something else. Some I will come back to years later.
The curse of ADHD.
When friends comment on my ever changing hobbies and dropping them, my reply is simple; it’s the journey for me and not the end goal.
Current hobbies and durations:
- Rubik’s Cube - 6 years
- Indoor bouldering - 4 months
- Running - 25 years on and off, currently off.
- Lego - 1 week. Only have one set. The Bonsai Tree.
- 3D Printing - 2 years but off right now until I can get a new printer that isn’t so high maintenance.
Indoor bouldering
Wait, what? Is this a Sysiphus kind of hobby that I haven’t heard about yet!
I’m not sure if you’re being serious right now and it doesn’t help that my Greek mythology knowledge is severely lacking (something I’ve wanted to learn more about).
So in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, indoor bouldering is like indoor rock climbing but not so high you need a belay system. Also, the climbs imitate boulders and so you might climb with all the holds being above your head, like the top of a cave.
As an expert in hobbies, I can honestly say this is freaking amazing. It’s got physical activity mixed in with problem solving and all the people I’ve talked to are super nice too (geeks, we are all geeks). If anything like me I find it hard to turn off my mind; this does that for me though. It’s meditative for me.
A bit after I posted, it occurred to me that it could’ve been that, but I was too lazy to edit my post.
I’m no a native English speaker, so I didn’t think of it at first, sorry. Also I kind of liked the idea of a hobby where you rolled large boulders in your home.
No problem. I just want to say your English is amazing for a non-native speaker / writer.
Also, I carry my burdens around the home like Sisyphus so there is that 😂.
I got a couple Rubik’s cubes for my kids a few years ago for nostalgia and they didn’t want anything to do with them once they realized it wasn’t easy to fix.
I tried to encourage them to keep plugging at it but they said “how am I supposed to do this if you can’t?” I realized they had a point so I downloaded an illustrated book that takes you step by step through the beginner method, and after a couple of hours I solved it!
I felt like I had climbed Everest and the first thing my kids did was scramble it again as soon as I showed them. That was the beginning of me getting into cubing as a hobby, and I have to say it’s one of the LEAST expensive hobbies I’ve ever been a part of!
Like with any hobby there are entry-level cubes and then enthusiast cubes that are more feature-rich and expensive. But the Delta between the two is surprisingly small. The cube that I use the most is one that has won world records and it was about $20 I think?
I have bought several variations of the 3X3 and other form factors. I have also bought a few as gifts as well as a Bluetooth connected cube with an accompanying robot and I don’t think I’ve spent more than $300-$350 total for the lifetime of the hobby.
That said you could easily be competitive with a world class cube, a timer, a mat, and some “Cube Lube” for maintenance all for about $60-$80 no prob. It’s about the only hobby I have my wife fully endorses, lol.
I was reading your post and I briefly thought you were trying to say it IS expensive, not that it is not. And I was like is this guy on crack, cubing is cheap as chips.
Anywho, glad to see I was wrong. I learned cubing at the same time as my buddies kids did, and while I never got faster than I think a minute and a half? They are well under a minute now, it’s crazy.
I still cube occasionally, but mostly just to fidget while watching TV 🤷♂️ Also so I don’t forget how to do it.
Yeah, it’s cheap. Sorry for the lack of clarity and brevity. Lol.
I couldn’t get any faster than about a minute and a half using the beginner method so I decided to try learning CFOP. At first I got way slower because there are more algorithms to remember but I saw how some others have modified it a bit to make it simpler and practiced when I could (i.e. watching TV like you lol) and now I can solve it in about a minute.
That’s clearly not competitive in any way but I’m really just competing against myself so I’m happy with any Improvement. That’s light years better than where I started and to people that don’t know there are 11-year-olds online doing it in 8 seconds, my one minute is pretty impressive! 😂 Happy cubing, my friend!
A lot of expensive hobbies don’t have to be expensive. I’m a musician, and I have spent thousands of dollars on musical equipment but realistically, if I weren’t going to play out, or record high quality songs, you can get away with just a $200-$300 guitar (you might even be able to go lower. Cheap guitars are crazy good these days), a used amp, a tuner, and a cable. With that alone you have a lifetime of entertainment and challange, and the most expensive long-term cost is your strings. It’s honestly a steal in term of cost to entertainment ratio.
Now. That said. The real challenge is not falling into GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome), which is a real challange. And if you become even mildly capable on guitar you’re probably gonna wanna play live and record too, so, easier said than done, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.
I totally feel the GAS issue, (lol that sounds bad). In high school and college I totally got away with a budget setup like you described: cheap guitar, used amp, laptop, a couple of effects pedals, some cables and I was in solid shape. I recorded A LOT! Hell, some of my best work was done with that budget setup. Audio quality wasn’t the best but it didn’t matter to me, just for fun.
As soon as I got out of college and had more than two nickels to rub together, my gear setup had gotten out of hand. Multiple guitars, amps, midi controllers, mixing boards, usb interfaces, studio monitors, full pedal boards, multiple mics, electric drum kit, cables cables cables. Just insane, thousands of dollars. I still do plenty of recording and playing but not nearly as much as my budget days. Some truth to less is more I guess. I have so many toys I don’t know what to do with my hands.
The upside to having more gear is I can host karaoke at parties, jam sessions can be recorded live in very high quality rather than relying on cheap hand recorders, and my own records are much higher quality. Plus, lots of toys, so I can never be bored.
I will say though, I much prefer a minimal setup. It keeps everything tight. It’s very hard to avoid all the novelty of having new toys to play with. But it’s true, playing guitar can be a very cheap hobby!
my current hobby has so far cost me about $5k over 10 years
Do we just guess what that hobby is?
I don’t mean this to come across as rude, but why would you make this comment and not mention the hobby; without it the comment is pretty useless.
i dink around with welding. clear?
Crystal.
I could have guessed until the end of time and welding probably wouldn’t have been a guess.
That’s a cool hobby. I know if I had a welder I wouldn’t be able to just not weld random things.
its a serious addiction. very hard to leave it alone sometimes.
As long as it’s not detrimental to other areas of your life, I don’t see that as a bad thing.
a few blisters is a small price to pay for the satisfaction
It’s detrimental to isolated pieces of metal.
You will be assimilated.
Honestly, 500 bucks a year is not that much to spend on a hobby as long as you’re enjoying yourself.
trudat
Me with 30+ Libreboot desktops/laptops.
Me who enjoys reselling as a hobby.
What do you resell?
Mostly vintage electronics, (PC, cassette decks, VCRs, a laser disc player one time), cassette/Video tapes, I have about 1,000 NOS vacuum tubes I need to go through. I also like to sell car parts, but I don’t go out of my way to look for them. I kind of just like fixing that kind of stuff as a hobby, but don’t really want to be a hoarder. I also find other oddball stuff once in awhile like really rare books or collectibles like vintage toys. It’s all usually stuff that is hard to find so the people buying it are really happy to find it.
Relevant af… Been flirting with the idea of finally buying pro DJ gear after like 16 years of being a DJ. Have done a jillion weddings, and a healthy dose of misc functions from corporate shindigs, galas, house parties, bars, etc…
Have limped along so far by borrowing gear whenever I had a proper gig (plenty of friends in the scene) but now I have some fun money budget. The spicy pro gear is soooo stupidly expensive but about time I had real gear off my own. The cereal box bedroom toy deck only gets you so far.
I do some cross stitching and it hasn’t been bad. Even using kits instead of doing custom ones. I’ve got like $120 CAD worth of large kits and, at the rate I’m going, they’ll probably last me a decade or maybe my daughter will inherit some of them.
I’m well into year 2 of working on the current one.
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This is why I turned to hardcore drugs. Much cheaper.
…Factorio counts as a drug, right?
Most hard drugs are indeed very cheap. Alcohol and cocaine are the exception
Yes
Hey man, you got any of them combinators? I got a serious jones for some arithmetic combinators.
Schedule 1. No inherent benefit whatsoever. Just time dilation.
I mean, what else to spend spare money on besides the things I enjoy. Like other people spend thousands travel. I spend the same amount on a box of Warhammer. Jk. I can’t afford Warhammer.
No! You’re supposed to be miserable for your entire youth by saving and investing every penny you don’t need to survive! That way you can afford all the medical bills and therapy you’ll need when you’re old and retired and have had a life devoid of joy!!
Sigma grindset!!!
You have convinced me to buy a kayak. 👍
Fuck yeah, what kind are you getting?
Buoyant!
I’m not sure yet, I’ve been researching what to buy since then and I found this guide. It sounds like a sit-on-top with a flat hull is good for beginners, and I have a preference towards nothing inflatable also.
If you have any recommendations though, let me know! I also need to get a roof mount for my car.
I don’t have any specific recommendations, and the guide from dicks seems sensible. I will say that, having used both sit-in and sit-on, I myself definitely prefer sit-in. And I’m not a pro, I mostly use mine on calm lakes and gentle streams. My only piece of advice is to not cheap out and buy some $250 piece of junk from Walmart. It’s not going to be fun and will probably turn you off of kayaking immediately. You shouldn’t have to consciously think and make an effort to stay upright, the boat should just do that on its own. I like the brand Old Town, but there are lots of good boats out there. I hope you enjoy it.
Oh but it’s so much more fun on a canoe trip, on rivers. Everyone trying to tip each other’s boats (except the food boat). Sit-on kayaks tip the easiest but recover quick
Am I the only person with financial self control?? (I hate joy)
Fellow people who grew up poor?
There’s usually a point in hobbies where you can find a great price/enjoyment point. Until you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole
Why go deeper when you can quit a hobby every 3 months.
Oh yeah, so self controled… why don’t you buy a 3d printer then hun?!
Joy is DLC in my hobby.
Don’t worry, you can develop a WarThunder
addictionhobby and know neither financial self control, nor joy!
If you don’t spend money on things you enjoy, you are wasting your money.
Mine is gardening. Cheap to start, gives you exercise, and ultimately pays you in food.
Except if you plant flowers. Bulbs taste awful.
My secret shame.
Go eat some flowers!
Depends on the flower. Brassicas are generally edible and technically flowers.
Asparagus is just a fern. Idk what pineapple is but it looks fake.
Sunflowers are nice too
Pineapples are compound berries.
They grow like someone’s trying to prank others into thinking it’s how they grow.
Same with asparagus.
Asparagus made a lot more sense to me once I saw one go to seed. It branches out and looks more like a normal plant. We just harvest it before it gets to that point. Same with artichokes, they’re just an immature flower bud.
You can trade or sell bulbs though
Especially if you plant open pollinated varieties which are true to seed. So nice being able to save seeds and get more plants next year for free! Doesn’t work with everything but it does work with a lot!
“All you need is a pair of running shoes!” And another. And another. And another. Ad infinitum $$$
“I got into barefoot running but mainly for the savings”
Take up running they said. It’s free!*
Sweat-wicking shirts! Compression socks! Non-bouncing shades! UV-proof hats! Neck buffs! Trail shoes! Gaiters! Racing shoes, carbon-plated! Recovery flipflops! Base layers! Jackets, rain and windproof! Reflective gear! A smartwatch! Training plans! Runners’ memoirs! Club membership! Race signup fees! Gels! Electrolyte mix! Protein bars!
And have you tried spirulina, it does wonders for recovery (so they say)
Wait… there are non-bouncing shades???
But how expensive is obesity?
Those shoes are damn worth it!
If your goal is weight loss then a diet would be cheaper and more effective
Fair, but a lot of people have emotional issues that make that difficult, and running can be a fun activity. Bonus: it helps someone learn just exactly how much that “100 calories” is worth - by converting into a measurement system that they already know (time to burn it off), it can help to prioritize eating goals in the future.
Exercise also has many other benefits beyond weight control though, such as heart health, overall musculature, blood chemistry, and more. thin != healthy.
But if we are getting this deep into it, running in particular isn’t the best… it’s quite hard on the knees I hear. An elliptical machine or something involving the body core like calisthenics would be easier on the body and more effective at the same time. Then again, running sure is fun… :-D
