Like Moonlithereal I love to design houses and imagine who would live in them.
Blogging. You already have a computer; invest in a digital camera and you’re set. Document, ponder, rant, and maybe somebody will even read.
Origami
When my niece was a baby, my sister said she kept rolling over all the time. I said, “Hey, she has a hobby!”
And there’s really no age limit on that, either. (Or you could change it to calisthenics.)
Origami. Get the messed up copier machine paper from the office. People always make too many copies or they don’t have the original positioned right on the glass. Or save the bad paper from your inkjet printer.
your cost is zero to make this. Buy a assortment of craft acrylic paints (in the school art supplies aisle) and you got color origami.
Re-reading Lady Chatterly.
Genealogy - get the free PAF program from the LDS and start searching at www.familysearch.org and WorldConnect.
I have tracked down all the parents, brothers and sisters of my 8 great-grandparents that way.
If you get stuck on some individuals, you can often access Ancestry.com at your local library or get a free two-week trial at Ancestry.com to search deeper. If you are near an LDS genealogy center, you can search their archives for free as well.
You’ll find a wealth of projects at Instructables. You’ll be amazed at what can be made from an Altoids tin.
You can also combine knitting and thrifting by checking thrift stores for sweaters you can unravel for the (upscale) yarn. Not every sweater is unravelable – identifying them is simple though and there are plenty of tutorials online.
Once you’ve got your unraveled yarn, overdying animal fiber yarns (wool, angora, alpaca) is extremely easy - all you need is some food color and household acid (like vinegar) and heat – you can even use Kool-aid packets – the food color is mixed with citric acid so you don’t even need to mix anything. It will sort of smell like fruit punch though! Again, loads of tutorials available.
I once got a cashmere-but-blaring-hot-pink sweater for $7, unraveled it, and overdyed it using food color and vinegar to yield plum colored yarn. Equivalent yarn in the store would run $50 plus. Upcycling, baby.
Another cheap and time-consuming variation is crocheting rugs or baskets with fabric. Ask around - most people have some old sheets that are worn or have one stain, that they’re dying to give away. Other sources for cheap fabric are thrift stores and the sheeting clearance bin at WalMart & Target. The time consuming part is getting the sheets into strips by ripping or cutting, sewing the strips into lengths, folding the strip to enclose the raw edge, and winding it into balls. Actually making the rug is surprisingly fast and requires only elementary crochet skills.
Total equipment needed: a K crochet hook, 2 “bias tape folders” (available at sewing/craft stores), a needle and thread, lots of cheap/free fabric, and this book.
this rug was made of torn up old shirts, fabric a friend gave me free when she cleaned out her sewing room, and part of a top sheet.
this rug was made of an old set of sheets a friend gave me that was worn through in spots and fabric leftover from a different craft project.
Patchworking and quilting. I print paper templates on draft copies of my writing and use old clothes and linen for the material.
The first queen-sized blanket I did cost me over $30, because I bought batting and satin trim. It also took 5 years to complete. I’ve become faster and more economic since then, the current single-size blanket has a completion time of 7 months from start to end and will end up costing me $2.50 for new needles.
I quilt by pegging the pinned layers over a cube coffee table frame.
That’s better than tennis or philately.
To run and not hurt yourself, you need to buy decent running shoes, and they cost a lot of money. Granted, they last awhile (though not forever) so it’s not really all that expensive inthe long run, but it ain’t free.
You can cheap out on everything else; you really do not need $170 designer running pants. But do not cheap out on shoes. Proper running shoes are a must.
I go the wine and design painting classes about once a month at $35-45 a pop. For me it’s a bargain because I don’t have to purchase canvases, brushes, or paint, or have space in my house to work, or clean up afterwards.
I also like to upcycle found or cheap items.
I’ve never run a marathon, but I am a casual jogger and have run more than one 5K, although 5K isn’t a whole lot and they were all fun runs, so I don’t know if those even count, but the point is I’ve done running with the sneakers I have and am okay. I wouldn’t do any serious running without better shoes, but you can get out there and do something if you have decent sneaks.
baking - bread, pastries, etc are pretty cheap. Especially if you buy a 50 pound bag of flour.
Read some books. Download some free ones off of Project Gutenberg and knock yourself silly. Join literary discussion groups online.
Try to write a book.
Geocaching. You need a GPS of some sort but I just use my phone.
These.
And occasional letterboxing.
Is writing a hobby? But…yeah! It’s certainly cheap, it’s fun, it’s wonderfully time consuming, and it’s chock-full of all kinds of personal drama! And, hey, who the hell knows: it might get published!
I love the idea a couple people gave of creating a sim of their dream-house. House? Heck! I’ve been using Google Sketch-Up (Free 3-D design software) to design my dream castle! If you’re gonna dream, dream big!
Woodworking. Buying the necessary tools cost $3K+ but making and selling projects has me close to the break even point.
Crossword puzzles. There is probably a free newspaper in your area with a puzzle. If not, you can buy the local paper or a crossword book. Of course, they’re also available for free or low cost online.