Focusing on Frugal Hobbies

One thing that keeps me from spending huge amounts of money is different hobbies with a low start up cost. One hobby of mine that I have is playing the guitar. I have finally gotten to the point where I can riff and chord my music up a little, which I am elated by this discovery. If you shop around, i wold actually bypass Fender and go with a First Act guitar. Luckily I have received one for free for my birthday. But if you are not one of the lucky ones, try paying $90. But hey, $90 to play guitar or pay $300 video game system: the choice is up to you. There are certain packages that even include the amp. Remember that if you already are proficient in guitar and you want a better one, you will have do some shopping around and First Acts and Fender will not be the way to go (since they are essentially stock machine parts). You might want to check out http://www.musiciansfriend.com, for some the better deals out there. They have some killer deals for the starving artist. While their effects pedals are a bit pricey, they have guitar deals like no other. In fact they give Craigslist a run for its money!

Another thing I do is look on the web for free e-books. No I do not mean downloading. I actually go to other peoples blogs and download their e-books and read stuff at http://writing.com, which by the way is a excellent site to have your own scholastic work or fictional work reviewed.

If you want exercise and for cheap, consider walking to work, especially if you only live a few miles a way. For me to walk to Sam's Club takes me about 30-40 minutes depending on how fast I walk. Walking really is the ultimate 'green' energy. It runs off of you!

Learning languages are also frugal from the start even though they get more expensive later on. When I was going to college, I started learning Japanese from UNR and yahoo chat rooms. YouTube really works wonders and i wish it was something I had when I first started to learn. Of all the languages, probably Spanish is the most easily accessible language to begin studying. You do not necessarily need Rosetta Stone (tm) in order to be able to gain fluency. If you have it already, that's great just focus on learning from that and keep your nose to the pavement. There are websites devoted to learning languages out there; you just have to look for them. One of my favorites is http://jisho.org, which is for looking up Japanese characters and learning vocabulary words.

Going to free venues in the paper is a good form of socialization and a nifty way of getting out of the house. Just because you are frugal does not mean you have to be a recluse. I look for free events through the Reno rag. Also there are things called books: you pick them up and read them. Books are the cheapest yet most important piece of media in the world. I can find books for free or $1 if i look hard enough. If you are reading this blog, then congrats, you do not need to be coached on such a cheap hobby.