Hobbies are fun. They can help you relax after a long day at work. They can provide a creative outlet, new skills, or sometimes even a new network of friends. But first, you have to get started. And getting started can be expensive, a slippery slope you may not even know you’re heading down until you find yourself unpacking the The Ultimate Bob Ross Painting Package. (It costs $800. But it comes with the easel!)
What’s worse than overspending on a new hobby? Getting all the tools and then having it all end up in your garage gathering dust for years after. Here are a few ways to explore a new hobby without diving in headfirst with your wallet.
Try an at-home kit
Looking to try a craft? Before you set foot in a supply store, look for a kit. “They include everything you need,” Kelly Rand, founder and CEO of artisan marketplace Handheld Handmade, said. “You don’t have to hunt down special tools or materials, it’s all right there.” She mentioned Joone, which offers starter kits starting at $45 along with refill sets for crafts like embroidery. Other DIY kit options include Social Crafts (starting at $35), Home Made Luxe (starting at $39.99) and Adults & Crafts (starting at $29).
Take a class to see if you actually like it
Even if you’re not interested in taking a lot of classes over time, going to a class when you’re testing out hobbies is one of the easiest ways to gauge whether it’s worth your time and money. The reason is simple: They almost always provide you with the tools you need.
Classes can be more expensive than the pure DIY route, but they also get you face time with an instructor, as well as the chance to try higher-end equipment. “You’ll be surrounded by other people in the exact same boat, testing things out,” Rand said. “It might be their first class too. You all learn from each other and the instructor.”
Classes are also helpful for trying hobbies that may not fit inside your living space. Want to try kayaking but don’t have a garage to store your own vessel? Start with a class or guided tour where you’ll learn about rental options and costs. Want to start canning but have a tiny kitchen you hate? A class will help you understand what equipment is really necessary and teach you hacks for doing the hobby in small spaces.
Rent or borrow what you can
Obviously the cheapest way to go about checking out a new hobby is to borrow some equipment from a friend. Chances are, you know someone out there who has a guitar laying around, or a soldering iron, or a circular saw, or whatever else you’re looking for.
Even if you don’t have friends that are into the hobby you want to check out, you’re not totally out of luck for free options. If you can find a tool lending library in your area you can borrow tools for free, and a service like Nextdoor can introduce you to neighbors who might be able to help. For electronics stuff, hackerspaces are a fantastic resource for tools and instruction.
If not, renting equipment is always an option, especially for outdoor hobbies and sports. Most outdoors stores will allow you to rent everything from tennis racquets to backpacks. Even software is getting on the rental train. For instance, if you’re interested in learning Adobe Photoshop, it doesn’t make sense to spend hundreds for an annual subscription right out of the gate, but you can check it out for a month for about $30 to see what you think. “Rent before you buy” is an old adage, but it’s still applicable when you’re trying out something new.
Ask an expert what you really need
But what about all the shiny new things? What about the pleasure and possibility of browsing the endless supplies and accoutrements?
To keep an eye on your budget, tell a store associate you’re just getting started. You might be surprised how little they’ll try to upsell you. “More than likely they know exactly what you need,” Rand said. “They know someone who’s been doing [the hobby] for 10 years [versus] someone who’s just in the door. They’ll send you home with very specific tools for beginners.”
An expert like a shopkeeper or class leader can also keep you from getting ahead of your skills. Take my developing green thumb, for example. On more than one occasion, I’ve traipsed through the hardware store picking up every remotely attractive houseplant to take home and nurture. But the odds have not been in my favor, with three-quarters of new plants withering and keeling over within a month of my splurge.
Don’t be like me. Ask someone for a beginner-friendly recommendation before you buy…anything, actually. “There are awesome and hardy plants at every price point,” say Morgan Doane and Erin Harding, authors of How to Raise a Plant: and Make it Love You Back. “Keep one or two alive before you bring home a whole house full of greenery.”
Start cheap and upgrade later
You do not need a $4,000 guitar for your first one, you don’t need the complete run of Spider-Man to start reading it, and you probably don’t need a $500 rain jacket if you’re going camping for the first time in July. It’s really easy to look at a new hobby and only see the best gear out there, but when you’re first starting out it’s all about figuring out what your intentions really are.
For most hobbies, you don’t need to dive in headfirst and buy the best (or even the midline stuff in some cases). Provided safety isn’t a concern (if you plan on bungee jumping then a good cable is probably a must, for instance), you can almost always start out with a starter kit or a cheap knock-off brand. Once you decide you’re really into it, you can upgrade as needed, and you’ll have a better idea of what you really want out of that expensive equipment anyway.
The main lesson is that you don’t need a lot of startup cash to get into a hobby. You have plenty of cheap ways to go about it when you need to, and doing so will prevent you from wasting money in the long run.
This post was originally published on 5/3/13 and was updated on 8/14/19 to include new information.