A few questions:

1) IIRC, one of your other big hobbies is hockey, which belongs in Group 1… no?

2) Are you ever planning on revealing your vocation?

3) Unix geek?! I had a sneaking suspicion… those skills still in use?

great post!

I too learned to end/limit my expensive hobbies and replace them for much cheaper and more fulfilling ones.

Right now my top hobbies would be;

1. reading – free from library or relatively cheap from bookstore
2. listening to music – free (albums I already own) or cheap (I might buy 1 album a month)
3. watching TV – there are some GREAT shows on TV and are free to watch
4. watching sports – I have an NBA League Pass which might cost about $5 a week but I make great use of it, often watching 5 or more games a week so at around $1 a game it’s well worth it for me
5. watching dvds – free, borrowed from friends

I used to have expensive hobbies as well, photography, the latest computer equipment, etc. but have transitioned to inexpensive but not totally free hobbies:
– swimming. $3.00 per pool visit at a beautiful outdoor Olympic pool (much cheaper than a gym membership) plus it is reimbursed at a 40 percent rate by the company where I work
– cycling. initial startup costs (probably more than I should have spent) but 1.5 years later very few costs other than an occasional fee to participate in a cycling event
– gardening but I probably end up spending a bit more than the free veggies I get 🙁
– geneaology – occasional costs to have a record duplicated but essentially free
– reading – free via the library. Years ago, I foolishly bought books but that is absolutely against my personal rules now. It is quite easy to go online and order any book via the LA library system and have it delivered to my local branch.

I haven’t yet made the transition to my hobbies giving back – I guess I need to work on that.

There’s peer pressure with hobbies, and specifically expensive hobbies. If I meet a nice woman, and I wish to impress her, its much better to say “I love to travel” instead of “I love to spend Saturdays at the library reading books and magazines”. The most conspicuous difference between the two personas, is that travel is by far, much more expensive, and by extension, impressive.

I have transitioned to hobbies that encourage wellness. Hiking, biking, and cross country skiing are all relatively inexpensive (after initial costs) They also promote physical health and positive social interaction with other frugal people.

I do spend money on traveling to exciting ski/hike/bike destinations. Hate to give that up, but looking at it in “years of slavery” instead of dollars helps.

[hey Paul, dating women who think excess consumerism is sexy sounds like the most expensive hobby of all]

I’d recommend investing as a hobby, particularly value investing. It requires endless nights studying accounting, company filings(free), conference calls(free on the internet) and industry health etc. The only problem is that eventually you’ll want to act on your ideas and that costs money, sometimes offset by returns though.

Great post, unfortunately my hockey “hobby” also falls into #1.

Those of us who like reading, hiking, listening to music etc (as above) are the lucky ones.

Many worthy hobbies are expensive: anything involving art supplies, travel, and so forth. How do lovers of those hobbies get around the cost?

Check out my new blog: frugalscholar.blogspot.com

It is a commonplace that everybody loves to travel and everyone loves fine food. They can be interesting conversation topics, no doubt. However, the fact that someone enjoys such a commonplace is not a marker for intellectual sophistication or discrimination. It’s just something that a larege portion of humanity agrees on.

Even though those things are nice, the question is, what are you willing to pay for them, and can you really afford them, and are they a priority for you?

Where have you been in my life?

I can’t believe I am just coming across your site. I am cracking up with your passion and energy. My husband (Significant Other) and I had a ’20 year’ plan. In May of 2007, when I was laid off in year 18 of our 20 plan, he quit his job and we sold just about everything. Now we live in a 5th wheel. We managed to raise a child and save like a madwo/men so we could buy our souls back. I, like you, followed a somewhat similar plan and my SO went along for the ride.

We are are just barely FI, which these days is sometimes under discussion. We are still struggling to find peace with being non-consumer but are very adverse to going back to J O B’s. My FREE hobbies include blogging (http://blog.thatwhichisgood.com) learning a bit of computer whimsical graphics (http://www.thatwhichisgood.com)and creating a store.

I think you nailed the key to FI in this post…FREE HOBBIES… Free hobbies/passions are empowering, life changing and can be fulfilling!

I can’t wait to read more of your brain food. I have great admiration for anyone who is both as frugal, finds joy, leverages money, and is more long winded the me!

Cheers!

I just found your website and I absolutely love it!! My favorite hobby is reading, which is obviously cheap as I can get most books I want from the library. I was also given a Sony reader as a gift (one of the best gifts ever!) and I have many free ebooks I can read. I actually used to buy many books (used when I can) on amazon, but since I got my reader, I pretty much stopped buying books and reading mostly free ebooks or books from the library.

*oups* should be 33000ft² – did forgot the meter to ft conversion, even if I wrote ft 😉

Jacob, or anyone on the forum,

I am confused about the calculation “What is your current hobby costing you in years? Multiply your monthly outlay by 25 and divide by your monthly savings rate.”
Can anyone explain this to me?

Thanks a lot.

Hello, I’m new here, enjoying the site, seeing many ideas coinciding with my own thoughts.

I’m surprised no-one has mentioned fishing in the hobbies section, or Have I missed it somewhere. For a small outlay on basic equipment, and free bait from the ground, under rocks etc., you have not only a fun hobby, but potentially a lot of fresh and tasty meals!

The equipment will last for years with the minimum of maintenance. This hobby also ties in easily with so many others: walking in the countryside, bird-watching, sailing/boating (if you’re lucky enough to afford that).

I get great satisfaction from eating a fresh caught fish with veggies from my garden, and any scraps left go on the compost heap… what’s not to like about this?

Regards
Robin

I think finding a free hobby is worthier than paying for one. You should also point out that the free time you have could be used to generate more income so you can be more free time. Freedom costs money and using your free time wisely means you can retire earlier. I agree that you need time to reflect and relax but I get great relaxation from making money to buy freedom. Nice post.

A free hobby is what I consider the ultimate occupation. My hobbies include cycling, watercolor painting, and reading.

I maintain a “free community library.” Really its not much more than a cardboard box at a laundromat that people use like the penny dish at a gas station. There’s always something good to read in there. What I like most about my community library is that it brings a sense of community into an otherwise solitary activity. Sort of like a book club.

Watercolors are very cheap when it comes to art supplies, and you can pack up your supplies and take them everywhere you go, and utilize when the muse strikes. This is easy to make a profit at too; I sell lots of them at Christmas time, by painting generic scenes on card stock and selling them as cards.

Bikes are an area that can be tempting to spend a lot of money on, but that’s completely unnecessary. My bike is a 1970s Raleigh I got at a garage sale, and all the customization I’ve done to it has been with parts people discard at bike co-ops. Learning to do all of your own work is easy, a major money saver, and quite a bit of fun in itself. Cycling is also a major community. You can always find people to ride with, talk bikes with, learn from, tell stories with, get parts from, etc, etc. All of this with the added benefit of getting fit, saving on car payments, car insurance, gasoline, and not emitting taking part in the destruction of the ozone…what’s not to love?

I’m with Nick when it comes to hobbies. Who says that for it to be a hobby it has to cost money? I don’t even need start up money. I garden for free. My start up seeds were extracted heirloom seeds from organic vegetables I bought & ate for dinner (a girl has to eat). I compost all of my scraps; my soil is tilled by hand with the bounty of free fall leaves. My rake & shovel were picked up on trash day. I use gray water for watering.
My son does gaming tutorials for two of the most popular games out there. The company gave him the game, paid for his computer upgrade, pays for his super speed internet line plus he earns about $50 a month (which easily covers his electric used). As his following increases he can earn even more. All of this costs him about 3 hours a week of making the tutorial. Many weeks spends even less time. He also got a budget to pay an advertising firm to promote his tutorials.
When I need an artsy kind of hobby I create & sell Steam Punk items by upcycling trash.
Completely free and even money generating hobbies are out there.

Darts. I’ve been using the same $45 set for 7 years, the same $35 dartboard for the same amount of time. You can play with friends, join a local league (usually free of very inexpensive), and even play online for free against players around the world using a webcam. Supplies like flights and shafts might cost you $10 a year. Obviously as with most things you can get bigger: blind draws, 2-3 day tournaments, national qualifiers, flying to events, etc, etc, but that’s not a requirement.

@altoid, I had the same question, and here’s the logic I came up with: your hobby adds to your expense needs, so you need $120/month of investment income. assume you will earn a long term interest of 4%, then you need $120*12/.04=$120*12*25 in extra assets to generate that income. Since you are saving $1200/month it will take you $120*12*25/$1200 months, which is $120*12*25/$1200*12 years. that simplifies to $120*25/1200. The same logic follows for any hobby x, savings y gives 25x/y years to save.

On a different matter, the problem is that 80% of the fun happens when we are beginning a hobby, before we have enough skill to teach it or perform in a workplace. It is not the case that getting paid makes us enjoy it less, what is true is that we get paid around the same time we stop improving. I suspect that the top 10% in any field are happy to stay in it because the challenge/ success stay at a high level for them.