Since its the beginning of a New Year and many people have made resolutions to change spending habits; one area ripe for change is in their hobbies.

It might even entail giving up on one or two… although I don’t think that’s really feasible except in the short term… after all if you didn’t really enjoy it you wouldn’t purposely be doing it in your spare time, now would you?

After a while you begin to feel deprived and eventually backslide most probably into a spending binge on whatever it is that the hobby requires in the way of supplies. (Been there, done that so don’t tell me it doesn’t happen!)

Rarely do people have only one hobby… and some of us have too many that interest us. Anything can be a hobby if it’s not something you need to do to survive or make a living from and do it “just because.”

The best part though is that a LOT of satisfying hobbies don’t require a large expenditure of funds… at least once the initial equipment is purchased… and maybe not even then… a lot of hobbies are actually very cheap to get into. So if you’ve made a resolution to cut your spending it might be   a good idea to possibly look at changing hobbies, not just scaling back.

Here are a couple of inexpensive but satisfying ones:

Gardening. Yes, you can spend a fortune on tools but if you buy quality ones then you’re only buying seeds and starts every year… and how nice is it to make your own bouquet for the dining table instead of shelling out $35 on one at the florist?

Knitting. Fifty bucks should get you just about all the different sizes of knitting needles you need and a good book or two on learning to knit. Check out “Knitting With Balls: A Hands-On Guide to Knitting for the Modern Man” at Amazon about learning to knit. Its real easy to make a scarf so don’t let it scare you guys. (And a handmade gift for your significant other to boot!)

Reading is another and one of my favorites… even if I paid full price for a book (which I rarely do) the cost is usually less than $.50 an hour of reading time and if I get one of my Hamilton Books specials it might be only a dime.

Writing. Some good paper and a good pen (OK I’m busted… I lay out $20 a ream on good paper and you can spend a $1000 on a good fountain pen but the paper is the only recurring expense other than the occasional $20 bottle of ink… sue me.)

Watercolor Painting. Watercolors are cheap compared to oil paints and the only real recurring expense is the paper and occasional refills of the pans. Another one that’s only about $75-$100 to get into.

Does anyone notice the pattern here?

These inexpensive hobbies all share two traits… they are usually something you do by yourself… although there are others you can do in group like say bird watching… and you are making/doing something that will usually take several hours or days to complete using a minimum amount of supplies/materials.

So what other cheap hobbies can you think of or do you engage in?

Photo credit: stock.xchng.