At home:

Cooking or Baking: Learn to make your favorite recipe from a restaurant or make yourself a version of your favorite sweet treat you’ve never been able to afford full price (macarons and tiramisu, I’m staring at you).

Recipes online, like Pinterest or blogs: Free

Ingredients vary per recipe, but see what you can make with what’s already in your pantry or fridge with sites like this or this.

Drawing: Bring out your inner artist and start to sketch! Everyone starts somewhere. Maybe pull up a “draw with me” video on YouTube and get inspired!

Pencils: $5

Paper/small sketchbook: $5

Photography: Even with a phone camera, see if you have an eye for photography and watch a few free videos on composition, and then give it a shot. Walk around your town and take some photos of everything that catches your eye, and use a photo app to edit them.

If you have a smartphone already: Free

If you do not, a point and click: $20

Photo apps to potentially edit your photographs, like PS Express: $5

Language: If there’s a language that you’ve been wanting to learn, now’s the time to start! The barrier to entry is just what you think you can achieve. 

Classes on YouTube: Free

Duolingo: Free

Sewing/Cross-Stitch/Embroidery: 

It’s not just a “grandma hobby” anymore. Pick up that needle and thread and learn to mend or upcycle your clothes in a visible way, like Sashiko mending, or learn to sew that perfect dress you could never find at the thrift. 

Thread: $2 each or $20 for a kit

Secondhand kits on eBay: $5

Needles: $5

Fabric (for inexpensive but quality fabric, check your local thrift store for bed sheets, the bargain section at a craft store, or even your own closet!): $10

Painting: Another way to stretch your creative muscles. Pick a color palette and a type of paint: watercolors, acrylic, gouache, oil, and just go nuts on a blank space!

Cheap paints: $10

Sketchbook: $10

Magic: Want to impress your cousins at the next holiday gathering? Learn magic. All you need are just some common household items. 

Deck of cards: $5

Balls for juggling: $7

Reading: The hobby of those who like to fall into worlds and escape this one. 

Library cards and library books: Free

Free Little Libraries: Free

Digital reading apps (Kindle, etc) and library apps to read at home (Libby, Hoopla): Free

Most library apps also have access to magazines, so you can play crosswords and things of the sort as well!

Starting a Blog, Vlog, or Livestream, if you have the materials to start: You can keep it personal, or you can share it with the world. You can learn to edit or leave them as a stream of consciousness, but either way, it’s getting your voice out there to share your perspective and leave your mark on the world. 

Digital domain: $20

Tumblr: Free

YouTube: Free

Twitch: Free (it is free to start up, even with backend applications like OBS, StreamElements, etc!)

Puzzles: Puzzles can be digital or physical, but either way, doing jigsaw puzzles is good for both your brain and your patience!

Physical jigsaw puzzles: $15

Junk Journaling: It’s in the name - JUNK journal. Take junk from your life and arrange it in pretty ways on a page to show a snapshot of your life to look back at later. 

A journal to put it in: $5

Odds and ends you have in your daily life, like receipts, printouts, photos, business cards, ticket stubs, etc: Free

Extra journaling supplies like stickers and markers: $20

Solo RPGs: Solo role playing games are basically a choose your own adventure book or a write your own story with prompts being provided for you. You either make a character or self-insert yourself as the character to go on an adventure by answering prompts, or your character doing a certain thing based on what card you pull. 

Solo RPGs on itch.io: Free

Playing cards: $5

Tarot Card Reading: Want to channel your own magic? Lean into your own witchy leanings by using a divinatory tool that is good for self-reflection.

Tarot Card/Oracle deck: $20

Virtual Trip Planning: Going too far from the couch still seem like too far out of reach? Me, too. Planning the trip is half the fun for me, and maybe it can be for you, too. Look up Atlas Obscura and hidden gems, and really get into the nitty gritty of the area, and not just the normal tourist traps. 

Virtual museum tours: Free 

Making dream itineraries and travel plans: Free

Watching travel videos, documentaries, and vlogs: Free

Shopping Your Own Home: 

A lot of times we buy hobby kits when we have extra money, or craft supplies when we want to be like the crafty girlies, or those rollerskates when it was a trend. Instead of going through your house to declutter, go through your house with an empty bag or basket and pull out everything that you haven’t touched since you bought it. Take that basket and challenge yourself to try something in it every day or every week for a month or so. You may rekindle a spark for an old hobby or find something that you forgot you owned! 

Commonly, people declutter items because they “haven’t used it in forever” or they have a “get rid of it if you haven’t touched it in 2 years” rule. Nowadays, with things being so expensive and hobby trends coming and going as fast as you can blink, holding onto those items and trying again is helpful. It makes us slow down and be more mindful of what we are consuming, and it makes us use up what we have before we buy more. 

Kids Craft Kits From Big Box Stores: Not only kids can have a fun time with these! Buy the ones you always wanted to try as a kid. 

Most of them are under $10, and they have everything you could need to craft something cute. Let your inner child loose!

Shrinky Dinks: Good for jewelry, mobiles, windchimes, or suncatchers, these are now resurging as a fun thing to do. 

Non-recyclable plastics, like Taco Bell containers: Free

Shrinky dink paper: $10

Colored pencils/chalk: $10

Calligraphy/Typography: Always envious of those who have greeting card-level handwriting? Now’s the time to level up your skills! 

Pens: $5

YouTube tutorials: Free

Pinterest: Free

Decoupage/Collage: Look at old book pages, printouts, book covers, magazine clippings, and arrange them in pretty ways. Take that layout and glue it down either to an item or to a piece of paper, and marvel at your repurposed artwork.

Papers/magazine clippings: $10

Pieces to decoupage, like shoe boxes: Free

Glue/mod podge: $5

Friendship Bracelet Making:This craft isn’t just for middle schoolers anymore, especially after its revival thanks to rave culture and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Trade them with friends or strangers and bring a smile to everyone’s face with a colorful wearable piece of art. 

Beads are kind of expensive, but getting them in bulk online normally is: $15

If using thread to make braided bracelets: $20 for a kit of colors that will last you a while

Board Games: A fun way to cozily pass a rainy evening. Or host a game night and learn new games with your friends!

From the thrift store, games can be under $10! Most of them have all their pieces, just double-check before purchasing and DIY a few pieces if they’re ever missing any.

Writing: Let your inner Jane Austen loose and be your own muse to write what you’re feeling. You can use journal prompts or free write. You can just journal for yourself, or show those around you. It’s up to you! All this takes is a pen and paper, a computer, a laptop, or even writing apps on your phone or tablet. You could even use a napkin and a pen if you really wanted. 

Cost: Free 

Coloring: Coloring isn’t just for kids, it’s a calming experience anyone can do. Plus, you’ll have a colorful piece of artwork to hang up after. Maybe put yours up on the fridge?

Coloring book: $10

Colored Pencils/Markers/Crayons: $10

Diamond Painting: An elevated, more glittery version of painting.

Small kits like small prints or bookmarks normally go for: $10

Digital Art: Physical mediums not doing it for you? Try digital mediums where erasing is as easy as tapping a button. 

If you have a touchscreen: 

Procreate: $10

PicsArt: Free

Krita/FireAlpaca/ibis Paint X: Free

Canva: Free

Penpals/Card-Swapping Forums: Make a new friend across the world by joining a card-swapping forum on Reddit or Discord. 

Stamps: $10 for 20 Forever Stamps

Cards and envelopes bulk pack: $20

Video Games: Playing video games doesn’t make you lazy, and it certainly isn’t only a nerd hobby now. There’s a video game for everyone out there. 

If you have an Apple product, Apple Arcade is $7 per month for a ton of games (think hundreds).

Free games on your phone or tablet, even past the normal idle games or puzzle games, are action games like Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, Infinity Nikki, etc.

If you have Netflix, you get free games that you can play on any touchscreen device.

Listen To Auditory Content:

Listening or watching a podcast, audiobook, Twitch stream, YouTube video, or documentary: Free

Origami: Make a 3-D version of art with just a few folds. 

Paper: $10

Mapmaking: Pour uncooked rice on a piece of paper and then outline it with a pen. Clean off the rice, and ta-da! You have a landmass to make your own map. If you want to trace another map, put a paper above a light source and trace.

Rice: $5

Pens and paper: $10

Coding: Something fun to learn that is both helpful and smart!

Computer at any place, home or the library, and or an app on your phone

Zillow Deep Dive: Look at houses for sale in the places you eventually want to live and just dream.

Events/Out Of The House:

Free museum event nights or volunteer at museums to get to see cool exhibits. 

Concerts (Now, not Sabrina Carpenter, but local artists perform at local bars for cheap or open mic nights for a cover fee!): $15

Events on Meetup: Mostly free depending on the club, but you meet new friends and do activities together that you don’t have to plan. 

Events at restaurants, bars, and clubs: Cost of meal or door fee (these can be anything from trivia to board game nights to open mics)

Going to thrift shops/estate sales/yard sales just for the thrill of the hunt! Leave the wallet at home or challenge yourself to stick to a set budget and see what you can find.

Hobby/craft swaps: A lot of Facebook groups have chats where you can request items or lay claim to items for free or for a low cost, or even swap items you have that the other person needs. It helps build community AND helps the environment, your wallet, and your imagination. There are even plant swaps!

Book club or writing club: Read a book and participate in group discussions! Or, write your own literature and have others critique it, or vice versa, reading others' works and editing theirs and learn more about the craft!

Tour your town like a tourist! Plan a trip for yourself like one of the previous ideas but do it in your town. Make a checklist to visit unique landmarks, features, or historical sites, cool shops to window shop at, or fun events and actually visit them. Cross them off by going!

This is a non-exhaustive list of inexpensive hobbies to try or things to do. But hopefully, this can spark your imagination enough to find your new favorite way to spend your free time. While inflation is going up, we may feel like it’s hopeless and that we’re just work, work, working, with no end in sight. Or, that there’s no inexpensive alternative to sitting on our couch, staring at our phones in silence. But I hope this list shows you that there are ways to get off the couch that are both inexpensive and accessible, and that no matter what’s in your bank account, there’s a fun way to spend a weekend.