Five Inexpensive Hobbies

If quarantine taught me and my husband anything it’s that we didn’t have any hobbies. After the first month of being bored out of our minds, we decided we needed to get some hobbies and they needed to be inexpensive hobbies to start. Some things ended up being super cheap and simple to start. Other things have slightly spiraled out of control and become far more time-consuming and expensive than originally intended but I blame almost all of it on Youtube and I’ll tell you why.

Sourdough

One of the first things I started doing at the beginning of quarantine was cooking and baking. I of course had to jump on the sourdough bandwagon and give it a go. I am pleased to say my starter is still happy and I just made a loaf of bread yesterday. Besides bread, I’ve made sourdough pizza (I’ll be coming out with another post all about that), pancakes, and crackers. It’s super simple to start and you really don’t need a lot. I get all my info and recipes from King Arthur Baking Company.

Embroidery

Embroidery is the cheapest hobby I picked up. Everything you really need to get started is under $20 and all can be found at a local craft store. You will need a hoop (which depending on what you’re doing you can reuse multiple times), a needle, embroidery floss, and fabric to stitch on. A water-soluble fabric pen, a light, and small scissors are really useful but not necessary. You don’t need to take any special classes, there are lots of tutorials on Youtube and after you learn a few basic stitches you can do just about anything. You can totally freehand your work or there are also tons of free patterns and cheap ones on Etsy.

For free patterns, I love DMC  which is also the floss brand I use. They are constantly updating their free patterns. If you are really unsure about starting out you can also find full kits of everything you need on Etsy or at your local craft store. The really cool thing about embroidery is that your options of what you are creating are endless but also where you are embroidering. You do not need to stick to a hoop anything made out of fabric works. Think hats, clothes, backpacks, pillows. This has turned out to be a really relaxing hobby and I love giving them away as gifts.

House Plants

I have always been a plant lover. I grew up with gardens in the backyard and even got my Bachelors’s Degree in Crop Science. House plants have become a new adventure though. I quickly became addicted. I bought a shelving unit, grow lights, and a humidifier. You can check out my current setup on this blog post.

Fish!

Well, this hobby kinda spiraled out of control. We somehow have ended up with 4, yes 4, fish tanks and a breeder tank. Two 10 gallon tanks, a small shrimp breeding tank, a small guppy breeding tank, and a 30 gallon. We started out with just a betta and the more Youtube videos we watch the more we wanted. This hobby can get really addictive and costly but it can also be really cheap. Our 10-gallon tanks we got at Walmart for $30 and came with everything you needed. Pictured below is our guppy tank which we have plans to breed and sell. We already have 50+ fry growing and these things never stop popping out babies. A great free resource for just starting out is the Youtube channel Aquarium Co-op.

Watercolor

Watercolor has to be one of my most relaxing hobbies. I have been wanting to do watercolor for literally years. I never started because I always thought I wouldn’t be very good.  Well, I was right, I’m not very good at painting “things”  but making these circles and other patterns is just as fun and relaxing. Two Youtubers I love for basic tutorials is Shayda Campbell and Jenna Rainey.