Hobbies/Crafts and MoneySaving ...

MessyTessie

I made a promise to myself about 3 years ago only to buy the bits I NEED for a project I was going to cross stitch, not for things I will stitch or make 'one day'. I've also cut back on buying things for my card making but I've so much stash I haven't noticed a problem

I'm getting to the end of my 'to stitch' list but I have a couple of projects to do for friends so although it's for free at least I don't have to spend out for materials as they are supplied for me and I get a couple of months of entertainment for nothing.

lostinrates

re charity shop prices, I've been noticing this for years. A s a teen my friends and I used to pride ourselves on originality of combinations of things bought and often altered, from chrity shops. we'd buy outfits with our pocket money and look ''unique'' (not good in retrospect, but unique). Now my nieces find the cheap high street clothes to be cheaper or as cheap and they and their friends express someone else, all the same person, in similar outfits, rarely their own personality creeping in.

Bargains are still to be found at CSs but not as easily. I too like to buy books, and chrity shops are rich sources, especially of cookery books, which I lie to keep not borrow so they can get sticky and have pages turned over and annotated. Now, the usually price is £3.99,not the £1.25-£2.50 mark it used to be.

clare64

Dandy, our local CPL shop sells balls of brand new wool for £1 a ball.
HTH

meritaten

I find that the 'Well Known Name' charity shops tend to be the ones on the expensive side! Local charity shops tend to price a bit more reasonably. Boot sales are still marvellous for cheap books though. sometimes as many as six for a pound! you can often get knitting yarn in charity shops though. But I have unpicked Cardies and jumpers in the past if the yarn was really nice and I knew there would be enough to make something more to my taste!
Sometimes our local Pound shop has really lovely yarns 2 or 3 balls to the pound and I have often just stocked up there and found a pattern later (on tinternet as there are thousands of free patterns on there).
I also love cooking and I love to garden, but with my mobility probs my area of expertise is now the designing , purchase of plants and supervising! oh and picking of course!
if you really enjoy something then you will find a way to indulge yourself. think outside the box!

ginnyknit

meritaten is right you just have to approach things differently. Freecycle sometimes has people offering bags of craft stuff. free knitting and crochet patterns on Ravelry and look on craft sites for ideas. Many of the craft magazines have sites with ideas on - theres also a site for Prima mag and all its sister mags which is full to the brim with ideas which uses cheap bits and bobs - its called All about you - and most of the patterns can be done using recycled fabrics and pulled back yarn, buttons from old clothes and odds and sods like that. Hope we all helped you, I know how difficult it is to afford to buy things for crafts nowadays.

angeltreats

I still knit and crochet but only ever buy bargain yarn - even the expensive brands can be found cheaply on ebay when they're end of line or discontinued colours.

I collect cookbooks but buy the majority from charity shops (never ever paying over £3) or the odd one from the Book People.

Recently acquired an allotment which is £20 a year and after the initial spend for tools etc it'll cost very little but provide hours of activity for me and DH.

Managed to get a dirt cheap gym membership as my friend gets a cheap membership through her work and can add another person for free, so we split the cost and it's £7.50 a month for unlimited swimming, classes etc!

My favourite hobby is playing the ukulele, I bought a cheap instrument on a whim and liked it so much I joined a local club. It costs me a tenner a month but for that I get tuition as well as free biccies and a great laugh every Tuesday night. I did upgrade to a more expensive uke when I got better at it, but that's the end of the uke-related spending.

Oh and I've recently started a cake decorating class... but that's a very expensive hobby unfortunately as there's always something you want/need to buy

A friend of mine is a member of the local amateur dramatics society, there are very mixed ages there and they put on all sorts of productions. She's made loads of friends there. And if you're not into acting or performing, they always want backstage people, people who can sew or paint scenery and that sort of thing.

katholicos

Hobbies don't have to cost a lot (if any) money. Of course, some people may have expensive hobbies that require certain expenditures etc, but 'home hobbies' utilising creativity, old or new learned skills and reinventing/recreating/reusing what you already have or can get for free/cheaply. Creating something from next to nothing is both enjoyable and frugal. Gardening can be as cheap as buying a packet of seeds...crafting....look at things differently....ribbons, bows, shiny paper from wrapped gifts/chocolate boxes etc can all be put to good use by the canny crafter (I design and offer free download of hundreds of craft papers online, they can be accessed on my blog)...painting/art doesn't have to cost a lot...places like Homebargains and B & M sell tube paint and drawing pads etc...knitting and crochet...ebay is your friend, as are wool sites online that sell inexpensive yarn, or have good sales on (Kemps and Masons spring to mind).

Youtube can be great for tutorials for learning crafts/hobbies, and it doesn't cost anything at all. Lots of people in cyberspace are wanting to share their talents and knowledge. There are loads of resources, freely given...all we have to do is look for it or take advantage of it.

jollymummy

I've found the opposite tbh. I bought 3 books today in our local hospice shop for 40p each. I'll take these on holiday and leave them in our holiday cottage for others to enjoy. Me and my son use our local library a lot too.
Our allotment costs us £12.50 per year and we spend a lot of time up there with our little boy, growing lovely stuff to eat, I buy cheapo seeds from Netto and plant swap with my Mum

I recycle old clothes especially old jeans and make cushions and bags. I have a stash of embroidery threads and aida that I bought from charity shops or have collected over the years. I got a load of cross stitch mags from Freecycle and regularly do cross stitch projects.

If you look on Craft Gossip, Cut Out and Keep and other people's blogs there is loads of crafting inspiration on the cheap

Softstuff

I've found that I'm still able to do all the same things, I just have to do them a bit differently:

I still cross-stitch, but instead of buying a kit with a pattern I've found aida and cottons cheaply in charity shops and then made my own pattern or downloaded a free one.

I still like to sew, but fabric is very dear now. So I've been collecting vintage sheets from charity shops. You can find them pretty cheaply, especially with the odd hole in, but that's easy to work around. I'm planning to make some clothes, but also to try patchwork.

I love to read, but never buy a book, I get books, DVD's, CD's and even jigsaws from the library.

I like to make cards, so I've been making them from bits I've found on carboots, or bits I already had.

About the only thing I've bought for crafting in a long while is felt, but I've had hours of fun making things with it and embellishing other things with it for less than a fiver.

Cooking is another hobby, it doesn't cost much and we get to eat. I've learned how to make a few different foreign breads quite well recently, and also have perfected sushi making. Both adapted to be done without any special equipment.

I sometimes see craft items in stores and get a burst of the wants for them. I find the simple answer to that is not to go looking!