What do you do for fun?

[DeskJockey2028]

So now that we're all here sharpening our spreadsheets and eyeing the market it occured to me that I need a distraction. I've started a list of things that I like to do for fun that don't necessarily cost a lot of money.

* Walks.
* Board Games (er... this can be an expensive hobby if you let it get there).
* Reading.

What are your pre-fire sources of enjoyment. No cop out's with "spending time with my family" as all I can picture is you and your family sitting in a very quiet room, staring at each other. Give us all an idea of what you do when you spend time with your family. Or by yourself. You know, for enjoyment.

[GuitarStv]

Cycling (particularly exploring new roads)
Hiking
Camping
Fishing
Writing music
Playing music (guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, banjo, mandolin)
Lifting weights
Gardening
Reading
Cooking/baking
etc.


I figure that an ER day would probably go something like this:
- Wake up early (5:30 - 6:00), mix up some sourdough and eat breakfast
- Go for an 4-5 hour bike ride
- Come back and bake my bread, then eat it with some black forest ham, swiss cheese, fresh lettuce/tomatoes
- Pick up some new books from the library, and maybe a movie
- Sit down in my back yard and read for a few hours
- Walk the dog
- Do some gardening (pulling weeds/tidying stuff up)
- Make supper
- Watch movie
- Go to bed happy

Stuff is flexible though.  Maybe I'd go down to the beach for the day.  Maybe I'd bike up to my mom's house 120km away and do a visit for a night, then come back the next day.  Maybe I'd tear apart something on my bike and fix/clean/regrease it.  In the winter I actually like shoveling snow (when not pressed for time), drinking hot chocolate, (maybe the occasional heated sake in the evening).  I've got some plans to do a few bike touring/camping trips in retirement too.  I've had some experience in the past teaching martial arts, and that's something that I'd like to explore again in the future too . . .

[marielle]

- Play pool competitively in league teams and in cash tournaments. Most time spent is on practice. This can be expensive but can also be very cheap, just depends on your area. Sometimes places have free or very cheap tables but they will either be small tables or crappy quality. My goal is to buy my own table eventually though.

- Giant jigsaw puzzles. Next one is 9000 pieces! This turns into a fun project for building a frame for the puzzle. Then you have a relatively cheap but giant decoration.

- National Whitewater Center, $200 for a year pass with unlimited entry which includes kayaking on the river or the whitewater, paddleboarding, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, ropes courses, and zip lines.

- Volunteering at a parrot rescue. Training birds and helping potential adopters learn about them and finding the right bird for them.

[simonsez]

I do a lot with card games.  I run a small monthly Spades club and keep the statistics for a small Pinochle club.  I also play low stakes dealer's choice poker about twice a month.

Other activities include bike riding, listening to baseball/hockey games outside next to the fire pit, having GoT gatherings, hiking (though this is sporadic due to being concentrated on trips), tailgating/college football, monthly dinner club, puzzling, lake house, farmhouse, gardening, swimming/lounging at the pool, any number of lawn/beach games, fantasy baseball, yearly minor league baseball report (on my team), bar trivia/trivia night, bonfires, barbeques, float trips, baking, golf, tennis, midget/sprint car races (dirt), fiction and historical literature, the occasional read on lifestyle and personal finance, darts, and billiards.

[ducky19]

I like to talk about running excessively. I also like to talk about running, excessively.

[SimpleCycle]

I sew and am learning to quilt.  I try to keep costs down with sales, repurposing, and using finished products as gifts.

We have a community garden plot and make family trips to the garden a few times a week.

I take the kids to the playground or park.

I have a young toddler, and I enjoy teaching her toddler games like the hokey pokey and if you're happy and you know it.

I am taking a course on Coursera to gain some work skills, but it's fun too.

I do random analyses of things I'm interested in using data.  Right now I'm looking at baseball stats and the effect of the DH rule on batters hit by a pitch.

[BAM]

Read a lot.
Keep a Common Place book with favorite quotes from the books.
Go to the library.
Take my kids on a field trip (we homeschool).
Take my kids to the park.
Camp
Hike
Movies
Nature Study journal
Photography (still learning)

My DH would add fishing, hunting, tying flies for fishing.

I'm hoping to add learning drawing but am trying to get our school year fully going first.

[Lan Mandragoran]

Athletics, video games(!!!!woot!!!!), pretend to have fun working on my house, play with the munchkin, Audiobooks ^_^.

[FireHiker]

-reading (library ebooks are my new favorite thing)
-cross stitch
-learn languages
-hiking/camping/backpacking
-yoga
-piano
-travel
-play lotro

None of which I get to indulge anywhere near as much as I wish I could.

[GenXbiker]

- Play pool competitively in league teams and in cash tournaments. Most time spent is on practice. This can be expensive but can also be very cheap, just depends on your area. Sometimes places have free or very cheap tables but they will either be small tables or crappy quality. My goal is to buy my own table eventually though.

Back in the early 90's until the early 2000's, that would have been at the top of my list.  When I bought my current house, one of the things on my list of "wants" was room for a pool table without getting backed up against the wall.  I went with an Olhausen 8' table with Simonis 860 cloth.  But then my interest faded, so I've barely used it over the last 13 years or so and not at all in the last few years.  Maybe I'll get back into it some when I FIRE in a couple years when I have more free time, but then, I might not be staying in this house long term.

[mm1970]

Beach
Walks
Runs
Pool (we have a Y membership)
Parks
Playing cards with the kids
Potlucks
Playgrounds

[FI4good]

Walk along the beach ,
Research new recipes online for things i might cook one day,
look into the echo chamber of twitter,
avoid doing paperwork,
work on my 43 year old car,
Watch a bit of CNBC to confirm i still know nothing about trading,
Day dream about slow living around the med in 15 years time,
Propagate plants and flowers in the garden to make the beds full for nearly free.
Play a bit of x-box or PS4, 

[RoadtotheMountains]

Current hobbies are reading, baking, playing board games with the kids, going for walks and wasting time on the internet. Oh, I like to people watch.

[Bracken_Joy]

Husband and I both:
-Hiking
-Camping
-Weight lifting
-Some video games
-Cooking
-Biking to the grocery store (seriously, this counts as a hobby, we'll do this if we're bored. I always keep a couple things on the list, like "backup ketchup", for when we want to do this! lol)
-Home DIY
-Laughing at silly things our dog does
-Watching funny stuff on youtube (ultra spiritual life, john oliver, bro science, videos of dogs, random stuff like that)

Me more than him:
-Reading
-Gardening
-Preserving produce (canning, pickling, etc)
-Buy Nothing Project

Him more than me:
-Brazilian jiu jitsu (not as cheap as most list items)
-Electronics (he recently went through a phase of building amplifiers. Built a couple really good ones, gifted some, moved on. He finds new stuff like this to do periodically.)

[Silverado]

Running

Electronic projects

Reading and planning electronic projects

Hiking

Doing school work

[expatartist]

How I have a good time

Free stuff
* Going to art openings for socializing, free wine & canapes
* Camping near the beach
* Hiking
* Reading
* YouTube documentaries


Cheap stuff
* Sundowner wine / beer on the rooftop from discount shop

Not so cheap stuff
* Sea kayaking (~US50 for a day of instruction, equipment rental etc)


There are transport costs involved with some of these, but luckily in my city they're pretty minimal - and efficient.

[aceyou]

- Tennis
- Cycling
- Browse MMM
- Spend time with DW
- read about science
- go to an ethnic restaurant, eat something new and awesome, then go home and figure out how to make it.
- Mow the lawn
- Hang out at parks
- Read
- campfires in the backyard with neighbors
- invite friends over for dinner
- podcasts..usually freakonomics or hardcore history or madfientist.
- contemplate existence/space-time/the idea of infinite, speculate on the probability that there's a supreme being out there, speculate on the probability that the supreme being gives two sh%#@ about the lives of a species of primates on our tiny planet in our tiny speck of the universe, if in fact there is some supreme being. 
- enjoy a beverage, usually in conjunction with one of the above activities.

Usually one of those things.

[Dicey]

- Read
- Hike
- Travel
- Volunteer at the library
- Volunteer Usher
- Fund raise for the library
- Volunteer for other community events
- Cook for my family
- Cook for friends
- Entertain at home

- Fix up our home (We DIY everything.)
- Buy rentals for below-market prices, rehab them ourselves, rent them out, repeat
- Flip houses on occasion

The last three are not free or even cheap, but they're things we really enjoy doing together and we typically make money doing them. I say typically, because until we sell this house, we haven't made any spendable money on it, but we're doing things that will add to the overall value and/or make it easier to sell when we're through with it. And then we'll find some little dump somewhere and start all over.

[Rubyvroom]

Drinking cheap wine and reading MMM forums past my bedtime >_<

Also Minecraft.

I mean I have real hobbies too but those are honestly the cheapest and easiest :)

[Imma]

I sew and am learning to quilt.  I try to keep costs down with sales, repurposing, and using finished products as gifts.

Me too! I love making quilts from repurposed materials. Also from non-repurposed materials, but giving a piece of textile a second life adds a dimension. For me, making do is the true core of quilting.
Embroidery
Sewing
Swapping crafts with other crafty people
Cooking
Baking
Reading
Listening to music
Fixing up our home (not always cheap, but I try to go for most cost-effective as possible with lots of repurposed stuff)

[ptobest]

- I read a lot, primarily library books as I hate owning something I'll read once & then sits there for years & years
- Walking (often to the library!)
- Hiking, when the weather is nice
- Cooking (honing my Japanese cooking & learning Indian dishes lately)
- Video games (I have gotten some incredible value out of the Civilization series)
- Eating out/drinking with friends (keeping within budget, of course)
- Making art
- Thrifting (feeds my occasional retail impulses without making my wallet sad)

[gggggg]

Great question.

Walks (pretty much every day)
Reading, though more so audio books lately.  (I *just* got turned on to them, and they're amazing!  I now listen constantly.)
Politics (local groups)
This - blog, forums, so on
Movies
Cooking a small amount
Hunting, shooting
Camping
Hiking
Outdoors stuff
Lots and lots of stuff with church
Teaching/mentoring - helping people with finances, getting engaged in things, so on.  I do this because I love it AND because it's a wonderful way to give back.  I think we should all give back.

I've tried to do audiobooks, but I tune out immediately; my attention deficit kicks in and I've forgotten it's even playing/reading in a min or two.

[nara]

Our expensive hobbies: I compete in bodybuilding bikini competitions and my husband snowboards. We also garden/homestead and have a mini animal sanctuary with 2 goats and a sheep. Most of our free time we spend at home since we live in a relatively rural area and we find tons of stuff to entertain us on on our property!

[VolcanicArts]

Woodworking with engraving (also creating a small business opportunity), walking, foreign language, travel, board games, play with my dogs, some gardening projects in the works.

[Tass]

I've tried to do audiobooks, but I tune out immediately; my attention deficit kicks in and I've forgotten it's even playing/reading in a min or two.

I've had trouble with this, but I've found that if I have something simple to do with my hands it helps my brain not to drift off. A repetitive craft like knitting/crochet works well, as does driving. Just enough that part of your brain (not the word processing part!) has to be focused instead of jumping to distractions. But they're not for everyone, for sure; I still prefer to read text.

I've seen several people say foreign language - what's your strategy? I studied French for 11 years but I'm afraid I'm losing it now that I'm out of school. I tried to issue myself a challenge that every other book I read would be in French, but the result was just less reading total rather than more French practice.

[BlueMR2]

Free stuff:
- Reading
- Jigsaw puzzle solving

Cheap stuff:
- Cycling with a local group
- Baking

Expensive stuff:
- SCUBA diving

[FIreSurfer]

I joined a community/volunteer run small boat club this year.  Membership around $200 a year for DW and I, and every weekend from spring til fall there are multiple activities using the clubs various boats (so no req. to buy a boat).  Lunch time is always on a beach or at the club house, so lunch is always packed at home in the morning and cheap, and it's real hard to spend money on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when instead of wandering around the neighborhood getting $$$ brunch and browsing shops, you are sailing across the bay w your cell phone back at the club house and the wind in your hair......
It's surprising how many community organizations you will find in any area if you start looking....

[Raenia]

Currently:
-Reading
-Making Food (cooking, canning, baking, pickling...)
-Sewing/Crafts
-Walking/Hiking
-Drawing/Coloring (adult coloring books are great)
-Board Games
-Minecraft

Past hobbies to be resumed at a later date:
-Gardening
-Woodworking/Crafts
-Keeping Pets/Livestock (used to have rabbits, want to do that again plus chickens)

[Laserjet3051]

Spent the whole day yesterday mountain biking some of the sweetest singletrack in OC's coastal range. Of course, redlining up some of those steep climbs felt like my heart was about to give out but after all isn't that what the MUSCLE over MOTOR mantra is all about? But of course, grueling climbs are oft followed by undulating technical singletrack that melts the vertical away.

Aside from the bike: completely free of cost!

[Bendigirl]

Use Duolingo for languages.  I am currently trying my hand at Spanish.  It's a free app and I find it very useful.

My pastimes:
Walking
Gym
Yoga
Painting
Kayaking at the local lakes
Teaching very part time at the university and volunteering for course field trips.  I mean really, who doesn't love rocks and fossils!
Learning Spanish
Travel...just back from Vietnam and heading to Mexico in December.
Brushing my ever shedding dog
Gluten free baking, always a challenge
Gardening,  not so fun this year in the smoke
Spend lots of time planning and researching the above mentioned holidays

[SC93]

Almost every day of my life is fun. When I 'work' I have fun. When I spend $20,000 on racing I have fun. When I'm at home with the lil woman I have fun. When I'm at the dirt track with my friends I have fun. I'm one of those people that makes everything fun. We are only going to be here once, we might as well make it fun. I'm the guy that makes the stupid little jokes and is always having a good time. Life can be fun....... if you LET it. Another fun thing I do is pi$$ people off on the internet.... now that is FUN!! Especially if I have the chance to meet them at some point. The look on their face is always fun for me. I should start making video of it! :)

[Dicey]

I've tried to do audiobooks, but I tune out immediately; my attention deficit kicks in and I've forgotten it's even playing/reading in a min or two.

I've had trouble with this, but I've found that if I have something simple to do with my hands it helps my brain not to drift off. A repetitive craft like knitting/crochet works well, as does driving. Just enough that part of your brain (not the word processing part!) has to be focused instead of jumping to distractions. But they're not for everyone, for sure; I still prefer to read text.

I've seen several people say foreign language - what's your strategy? I studied French for 11 years but I'm afraid I'm losing it now that I'm out of school. I tried to issue myself a challenge that every other book I read would be in French, but the result was just less reading total rather than more French practice.

Can you listen to audiobooks in French? Perhaps titles you've read and enjoyed in English? Something not too difficult, such as the Harry Potter Series?

[Dicey]

Almost every day of my life is fun. When I 'work' I have fun. When I spend $20,000 on racing I have fun. When I'm at home with the lil woman I have fun. When I'm at the dirt track with my friends I have fun. I'm one of those people that makes everything fun. We are only going to be here once, we might as well make it fun. I'm the guy that makes the stupid little jokes and is always having a good time. Life can be fun....... if you LET it. Another fun thing I do is pi$$ people off on the internet.... now that is FUN!! Especially if I have the chance to meet them at some point. The look on their face is always fun for me. I should start making video of it! :)

Clearly you get a kick out of trolling too! Maybe you were so busy having fun you missed the "Trolls Exit Here" sign at the entrance to the MMM Forum.