For me I generally pirate most books I read, although if there is a book I really enjoyed I will buy the physical copy.
I also generally tend to avoid having takeaways because they are just so expensive in this day and age with inflation and tend to opt for cheap meals like pasta or rice etc.
Also I don’t pay for any streaming services, but borrow a VPN service from a friend to pirate the movies I watch.
Curious to hear of some ways that you people here save money.
Having cheap hobbies
Hiking
Hiking is really only the cost of something to hold water and passes (that you think you’ll use) for the year.
People will shout, “But you need the right shoes!”
You just need comfortable well fitting shoes. I hiked in my every day running shoes until I literally walked through the soles. Somewhere north of 5000 miles of walking in 5 years is what they got me and they cost me about $100.
I didn’t buy dedicated shoes for hiking, those were just my normal shoes.
Biking
I got a used bike for the low low price of “is that a bike frame in the bushes?”
After about $200 in replacement parts I’ll ride it until it breaks.
It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s good for you.
The bike I had before I got for $50 at a garage sale and I rode that thing for 2 years until it got stolen. It was a good bike, I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
Photography
Fun fact about photography: if you have a phone with a camera you can get into it.
Seriously, “The best camera is the one you have on you,” is a common saying in the photography world.
And editing pictures is also super cheap.
You can do very basic edits on your phone but if you want to edit on PC (trust me you do) then you can get great software for free to do it. GIMP is a great alternative to Photoshop and Darktable is a great alternative to Lightroom. And did I mention both are completely free?
And sometimes (though rarely for me) people will want to either buy pictures from you or pay you to take pictures for them. So that can subsidize the costs for delving deeper.
3D Printing
No I’m not joking.
The barrier to entry can be high but all my printers have paid for themselves at this point and in 2 cases at least twice over.
And I don’t just mean in terms of selling prints I also mean in terms of saving me money on replacement parts.
Reading
Personally I have a local library card and use apps on my phone to listen to audiobooks.
I do this rather than pirate books because it’s super easy IMO.
And that’s it for hobbies really, though I do have a few more those are really the ones I typically orbit the most.
Also cooking as much as possible vs eating out. I still eat out once a month with my friends but I cook almost every other meal I eat. Some are frozen (I’m not perfect) but even then it’s cheaper than picking up takeout.
And not drinking alcohol anymore. I couldn’t believe how much I was spending on alcohol until I quit drinking. Though I avoided drinking at bars (holy shit it’s expensive) those bottles weren’t cheap.
Brewing my own tea and coffee also saves a lot of money. It blows my mind how much some people I know spend on coffee simply because they don’t brew it themselves.
Maintaining my car rather than upgrading it every 5-7 years. Also doing what I can myself (or with friends) rather than going to a mechanic. My car was made in 2007, I plan to drive it until I can’t fix it anymore. Then I get another used car to maintain as well.
There’s a lot really but that’s just a brief… (looks up) briefish list
I save so much money with my 3D printer. Broken parts are easy for me to design and print, and I’ve kept a lot of appliances out of the trash when they just need some little plastic part.
I’ve definetely saved myself many purchases with my 3d printer, but I definetely think I’ve spent more on filament for dumb/fun prints than I’ve saved with practical ones lol - especially when I’m designing my own shit and need to prototype, I’ve gone through entire rolls just iterating on a single design until I get something I’m happy with…
That being said, it’s all in how you use it!