Fun and Hobbies The Frugal Way

There are so many hobbies that a person can get started with, and many of those cost very little or can be done on the "cheap" as people say.

Both Harvey and I stay away from hobbies that cost a great deal to get involved in. Most of our hobbies are free or very low cost. The ones that do cost we try to do as inexpensively as possible.

Take for instance my sewing. I search rummage sales, second hand stores, sale fabric, or even on sale bedding. I have been known to cut down older clothing into squares to be used for quilts, and I use old blankets and pillow stuffing as my own stuffing for new pillows or quilts.  Scraps from sewing projects are collected and also cut into useable quilt squares or strips. Buttons and zippers collected from older unusable clothing to use in other projects down the road. Really the only things I am willing to pay for are thread and patterns, and I am considering more and more about getting my patterns for free from the internet.

Yarn wise, I have never paid full price for yarn. I search the same places as I do for fabric, and have been known to recycle hand knits into balls of yarn to use in projects. Every last bit of my yarn is used up, even the tiny pieces are collected and put out in the spring for the birds to use making their nests. The internet abounds with free patterns.

Cross stitching is a bit more expensive. However finding free patterns online, or trading patterns with friends does keep the cost a bit more reasonable.

I love to read, and while I do buy the occasional book (okay, probably more then the occasional book) I have taken to getting free on line books, and books from the library more and more.  Not only is my library a good source of books, they also carry movies, music, and magazines. A one stop shopping trip for any avid reader, movie lover or music lover. There are also a great many on line free book sources as well. Project Gutenburg comes to mind, as well as Book Bub, and Amazon has lots of free reading material for Kindle.

I love to hike, and even walking around my own neighbourhood gives me ideas for redoing my yard or colours to paint the house. Landscaping ideas abound. Sometimes I even get free seeds or cuttings from people I speak to.

Harvey loves crossword puzzles and he finds loads of them free online. He spends an hour or so every morning working on them.

The fact is the internet gives a person a great many free ideas for their hobby. Anything from crosswords, suduko, free photography lessons, youtube videos on crochet, free patterns, and wonderful recipes for those of us who use cooking as a hobby.

Probably the best advice I can give anyone is to find a hobby that the initial cost is not sky high, and that if a person wishes to continue a hobby they don't have to keep paying for that hobby. One that comes to mind is golf. You buy the clubs, you buy the balls and then you have to pay (sometimes a great deal) every time you want to play the game.

Find a hobby that you can enjoy that once you buy the essentials the cost to keep that hobby is negligible.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.