If a hobby is a recreational pursuit, something that is done with one’s spare or leisure time, then what activity outside of work isn’t a hobby? Is sleeping a hobby? What about eating? Can unemployment be considered a hobby? As a mother of two very active kids, can I consider the act of driving around in a mini-van—while I shuttle my kids to their various activities—my hobby? (Since, of course, I have no spare or leisure time, except for the moments I’m in my car and stopped at a red light.)
To shed a little more light on what a hobby really is, consider the reasons why people start one. Some people seek hobbies to relax. Others have specific goals, like building their self-esteem or reaching a certain level of expertise. And still there are some people who simply want to exercise their brains. So a hobby can be learning a new language, taking up a sport, mastering a craft, making art, or collecting specific things.
Despite the kvetching about my overscheduled kids, I actually do have a few hobbies, like running. Once both my kids entered elementary school, I found that I had some free time every morning. So I laced up my running shoes one morning and I’ve been running ever since. Running is a cheap hobby and, other than a pair of sneakers, doesn’t require a whole lot of skill. Not to rip off Nike, but anyone can just do it.
There are a slew of other hobbies that are easy and inexpensive to start. Below are just a few suggestions.
Collecting Things
Starting and maintaining a collection is something anyone can do, and the type of thing that is collected can vary in dollar value and size. For instance, my six-year-old son collects baseball cards, packs of which cost anywhere between two and twenty dollars. My seventy-year-old mother collects Lladro figurines, each one costing at least a few hundred dollars. And the talk show host Jay Leno collects cars and motorcycles, an expensive hobby that takes more investment. If I were starting my first collection, I would probably try my hand at something more akin to my son’s baseball cards.
Collecting is probably the easiest hobby to start because you don’t need any special knowledge or equipment. It can immediately be started on a whim; for instance, you might buy wind chimes while on a beach vacation and then decide to start wind chime collection. Or someone gives your kid a comic book for her birthday and thus begins her lifelong collection and obsession with Archie and Friends.
You can collect stamps, certain types of toys, baseball cards, comic books, action figures, model trains, certain types of clothing or accessories like hats or rings, cookie jars, figurines, posters, or rocks. You can set the parameters of your collection, narrow down the type of item by time span, material, or manufacturer.
Brain Exercises
Learning a new game or mastering an already learned game can really boost a person’s self-confidence. The “analog” games are the ones that I would try over the current regimes of PSP and Wii. Board games, card games, word searches, crossword puzzles, and Sudoku are everywhere you look. If you buy a daily newspaper, chances are you will find a word search or the familiar Sudoku grid inside.
Take a trip to your local public library. Whether it’s learning a new language or simply reading books of any genre, the library is commonly overlooked, forsaken in favor of the quick Google search and impulse Amazon purchase. And, don’t forget—the library has movies, too.
Easy Crafts
Some types of crafts are harder to learn than others. But with a good set of written and illustrated instructions, some crafts are universally easy. Sure, every book ever written on any type of craft will advertise itself as being so easy that anyone can do it. But these three crafts have the added incentive of being cheap, too.
