Thank you for following my posts in Save.net. As this place is all about making the most of your money, spending it wisely and preparing for a fulfilling retirement, all my previous posts mostly talk about ways to stretch your hard-earned $$. This one may be no different, but could be a huge eye-opener to any reader. We often complain about how food, power, clothing and transportation hitting our budget really hard. We know how these things could pretty much take a big slice from your monthly paycheck. But what you might not realize is that your hobby is equally draining your finances.

How come you’re not noticing it? Simple, because you love your hobby and you don’t want to ever be deprived from it. As its definition goes: A hobby is an activity or interest pursued outside one’s regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure. Hobbies can vary with every person. From reading to quilting, diving, horseback-riding, blogging, painting… The list could go on.

But what could be the world’s most expensive hobby? Well, the sky is the limit, I suppose. Especially if your hobby happens to be “shopping”. When I think of expensive hobbies, I think of car collecting or yachting. Except, I am not certain if I have ever met anyone who actually participates in a hobby like that. Probably the most expensive hobbies held by friends of mine are things like back country four-wheeling or skiing. Golf might be another expensive hobby. In fact, I imagine that golf could likely be the most expensive middle-class hobby. I think there are men who spend their entire lives saving for retirement so that they can golf every day. Americans spend close to $30 billion dollars on golf every year!

I have known of people who have more money to golf but prefer not to. Or well, maybe they do, but just once in a while. But when they got married and had kids, golfing was the first hobby to go. I salute people like that. Goes to show how well they know which and whom to prioritize when in it comes to expenses. Many people love to hike. If they would only spend some $50 on a hiking backpack and come couple more $$ on a good pair of hiking shoes, the hobby could be reasonable. They could just carry a refillable bottle of water and they’re ready to go. It would even save them from having to sign up to fitness clubs as hiking could pretty much be a good fitness practice in itself. It good even be a good recreation for couples who love to stay fit.

Part of the idea of living a frugal life is cultivating hobbies which are not expensive to maintain. Hiking is one of the best examples. But I guess nothing tops reading. Craft work such as quilting and cross-stitching can actually be quite expensive, which is ironic as that should be an inexpensive hobby. Craft stores have robbed the spirit of craft work to a certain extent and made what was inexpensive ways to stretch your dollar expensive ways to engage in conspicuous consumption.

What are some of the things you do that you are passionate about that you do for fun? That activity that no one has to force you to do – the job you do for free? How much do you spend on it? Does it occupy a line in your budget? That is something else for you to think about.