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😅.
I love going on hikes or nature walks. Some great free apps are Merlin (for identifying bird calls) and Seek (for identifying plants and animals). All completely free aside from getting to to trail, but even in city parks it can be pretty fun. A good pair of binoculars is a great addition if you have the $$.
I see binoculars at thrift shops all the time for the price of a semi-fancy coffee. Just make sure the lenses are clear and they focus correctly (sometimes the optics are messed up).
Definitely. Also, lots of local birdwatching groups or chapters of the Audubon Society that host pretty frequent outings. Most are free or pretty cheap. Then you have lots of experienced people to ask questions and make friends. Check Facebook or your local photography store flyer posts.
As long as you have a computer you can code, write, or digitally create nearly anything you want.
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.
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.
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.
masturbation
You again Cousin?
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 😘
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.
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?
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.
Fell mouth first into a blueberry bush while hiking
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.
I unfortunately live too deep inside the city to try that😅. There’s very little vegetation around.
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.
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!
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
If you have a computer, you can learn to write code. The market for programming is in shambles, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. You can do all sorts of things like make a game, build a personal website, make a custom app, make art, and more
That’s my career 😭. I honestly wish to change careers and do programming just as a hobby, but right now, it’s already what I do.
For anyone considering this, Harvard University’s cs50 course is free and invaluable to anyone who wants to pursue these interests.
Invaluable means valuable? What a country!
:P
Invaluable means the value can not be determined, not that it has little value.
yeah lol. I was just quoting the simpsons. “Inflammable means flammable? What a country!”
reading.
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 you need to buy books unless you go to thenlibrary
So just go to the library. Lol. Or a second hand and get them super cheap
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.
Or just pir… “Buy” epub files and read them on your phone.
You can pirate books.
or go to anna’s archive!!
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.
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.
I have spent most of my life partner dancing. Almost every organized dance I’ve gone to has been volunteer run. So while it’s not technically free, it’s pretty easy to get in for free if you ask nicely and trade an hour of your time.
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”
Geocaching
And while you’re out geocaching, check out Street Complete
OpenStreetMap surveying is an excellent hobby. I’ve been doing it for years.
Its free (somewhat), but the commercialization of it by the geocaching.com assholes has made me sour on it.
I’m a premium member and I find it worth it because I hike a lot. But for people who don’t have expendable income, you can just install the open source geocaching app c:geo, you’ll get a lot more caches than the official app and it will give plenty to find. Additionally, you can email geocaching and they give you a week or 2 weeks of premium, with that time, you can download as many caches offline as you want.
Yeah I know about c:geo, I have it on my phone.
I pretty much just gave up. Geocaching.com ruined it for me. It should just be a wiki and open. But nice to know the tip of two weeks to download.
I remember when it truly was a free hobby. It also was a lot more fun before GPS was on everyone’s phone and you used a separate GPS device.
Well, geocaching here, where I live, may be a completely different or separate thing then, we have our own geocaching repository with mostly small and interesting hides (or virtual caches or multi caches) or educating about your environment. Fully community driven and maintained, free of charge.
That is pretty neat. I always have to use one to 3 sites depending on where I am in the world.
I remember when we used to do CD, DVD, foreign coins and kids toy caches. Those were fun. Now it seems like everytime I check its just a log book at best, or a “scenic” cache.
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.
