Talk me into a new hobby.

I agree, picking up an instrument that you really like hearing is a good choice. The guitar is probably the most popular, but anything works: fiddle, saxaphone, etc. Something that you can play recognizable tunes solo (which is why I wouldn't suggest drums).

When I think 'hobby' I think of things to do indoors over the crappy weather season which around here is almost half the year. As suggested above, model railroading has something for everyone. Buildings, scenery, wiring, motive power, animation...there's no end to what you can do. You don't need to build a layout to be in the hobby, either. Now, if you just buy kits it can be expensive, but scratch building stuff is cheaper and far more rewarding. Here's a guy who builds most all of his stuff out of cardboard:

Coast Line RR You also don't need a basement to build a layout. Small layout index

AngryCorvair wrote:

Platinum90 wrote: I also enjoy running, maybe I should do more of that. It is hard to find the motivation to keep running though. I used to run Cross Country in highschool, it was much easier to keep going when I had a coach.

find out where the local runners' store is, and go there. ask about running clubs. honestly describe your ability and you'll find people to run with.

Angry beat me to the suggestion, once again.

I started running with a simple goal- and it was tough to keep working. Once a part of a running group, it became really easy. It's kind of nice to have a group of friends who are not car people.

Another cheap suggestion is gardening. Food gardening, specifically.

Our other "hobby" is local food groups. So we now "chef" once in a while at a breakfast that takes place every Friday- got to know some of the best local chefs around, and some super nice farmers.

While I know for sure I won't be a gardener, I've now tried growing things that we eat the most- tomatos and strawberries. And since they turned out well in pots, I'm now moving to a small sunny area between our homes.

Growing food is cheap (start with germinating the seed in the late winter/early spring), good for you (what's better than fresh food?), and good for the environment (well...). The best part is the taste- amazing to have tomatoes tha we grew on our porch.

Other people in our area have chickens, and there's always bee hives.

Food is a cool hobby.

A more expensive hobby- glass blowing. If you get good at it, you can sell your stuff, so it's possible to make it a lot less expensive.

Or Art in general. If, in part of your car hobby, you do basic body work, and weld- well- weld some of the scraps together.

Art is a good thing.

(food art, visual art, music, driving, etc)

Food is an excellent hobby! This year we had snap peas, green beans, summer squash, zucchini, some sort of spicy little peppers, strawberries, onions, carrots, kale, and green onions. Oh, and the tomatoes! Oh man there is nothing like an actual, fresh, ripe tomato. I'm hungry, I think I'll go water the garden and snack...

See if your nearest RC dirt oval track has a Losi Slider class. $200 rtr, realistic, 1/10 scale sprint car.

Book binding ?

Ham radio. Technically interesting, you get to fill your beater car/truck with electronic gear and cover it with antennas. Chicks dig it... well, no they don't. I've recently pulled a bunch of my old stuff out of storage and got back on the air after about 15 years away from the hobby. Something to do during the winter months.

I do electric RC cars. You can usually pick them up cheap from people that just bought a nitro car. I usually don't keep too many around, right now, I just have a Tamiya Blackfoot and a Megatech (Radio Shack) ProPulse. The Blackfoot is fun, but I need to invest in better packs. The ProPulse is fun because it's 1/18 scale and with the hot motor I have in it, it's fast as crap. I have the PP set up as RWD for now because I broke ANOTHER diff.

One thing I do for money on the side is fix up old A/V equipment. My best was a DBX 3BX Series 3 that I payed $2 for. I cleaned the pots and switches and it made me just over $500 on eBay. I don't have a single piece of A/V equipment that I've spent more than $20 on. I keep speakers that need new surrounds in the closet because the surround kits are usually pretty cheap and I can make a fair bit of money doing it.

Someone mentioned speaker building here and it's been mentioned in another thread. I like to get dead speakers, rip everything out of them, and reuse the cabs. It's incredibly easy to find loudspeakers that need a woofer because some 16 year old played daddy's hifi system on 11 for too long. Breaking out partsexpress.com and finding a driver that would work well in that enclosure isn't rocket surgery. I've done that with 3 sets, and the 2 that I've sold have made me about $100 a pair.

You can restore automotive switches. I've done that one, too. I need to learn how to silk screen and I can start to make pretty good money doing it. Most switches just need a good cleaning to work right.

Toyman brought up Geocaching. I've been doing that here and there for quite some time, and it's pretty fun. I have one dedicated GPSr, my TomTom, and both my cell phone and my wife's cell phone as equipment. The TomTom was free from my father in law because it's cheaper to get a new unit than update the maps. We'd own the cell phones even if we weren't cachers. My eTrex was $60 or so shipped.

Shooting sports are a lot of fun.

If you want to stay "basic", stick with glocks, AK-47's, things like that.

If you want to go crazy, get into 1911's where you can replace and customize anything/everything on them. Same goes for AR's. You can customize and personalize to your hearts content.

Once you start getting into the larger/exotic calibers, then you can start playing around with reloading. You can choose your bullet weight, powder load, etc.

-meaty

Home brew

neon4891 wrote: Home brew

Excellent suggestion.

I don't know how I missed it.

+1 for home brewing but it can get very expensive if you get developed into it. I don't play it myself but disc/frisbee golf seems pretty popular and low cost. I don't play it very often anymore but street/roller hockey is always fun and cheap. I bought a pair of blades for $20 and a stick for maybe $5-10 and a couple pucks and go look for an outdoor rink somewhere.

neon4891 wrote: Home brew

If wine is your game- it's quite easy to make your own wine, too.

If you're interested in shooting, I'd recommend black powder muzzleloading as a good start. You can buy a rifle as a kit and perhaps get interested in Frontier "Rendezvous" gatherings or Civil War re-enacting. All kinds of ways to improve the performance of your firearm through gunsmithing and it's challenging and cheap.

1. Shooting
2. Model railroading
3. Ham Radio

You guys think like I do.

My son and I spent the day yesterday with some friends at a boomerang tournament.There were several World Champions, record holders and first timers.

Everyone remotely associated with boomers were very polite and helpful. Fun to watch, frustrating to learn.

Learn to fly.

+1 on biking in general, but i have got to say that while mountain biking is a E36 M3-ton of fun, it gets expensive fast. I personally like to ride road bikes, very very good way to get around and the feeling of having traversed 30some miles under your own power is just... awesome. also i have a total investment in my bike of like 200 bucks, including maintenance items over the last couple years

My hobbies besides cars are playing sports (Ultimate Frisbee and Soccer), hiking and painting.

Photography seems like a good suggestion. I've shot for years, even got hired to shoot for some small-time NASCAR teams a couple years ago before we got out of that. Since then I haven't shot much - not much action stuff to shoot now that we're not around racetracks much (though we have shot autocross with good results) and not much interest in still life artsy fartsy stuff like that. Modern digital makes that stuff almost too easy.

But now my father-in-law just sent me his 50+ year old 35mm camera. Holy cow, I can't just shoot 50 frames with different settings assuming one of them will come out OK, checking each right after it's been shot. I have to get the shot right the first time, and I won't know if I got it right till after the roll's done and it comes back from the developer. Actual thought is involved because the hardware isn't going to save me.

I'll still shoot plenty of digital, since it's easy and cheap (free) and I know if I need a picture of something right now, there's no other way. But I can see myself sitting down with this antique camera and measuring, sweating, putting Deep Thought into the settings before firing away. With any luck, the results will be worth it.

oh ya and hiking is cool too

My hobbies other than cars: school, girlfriend, guitar, books, food...

I'd say an instrument is good. Start cheap--get a Harmonica.

Food you can do with little investment as its something you need to do--just make something new every time. Try to make your favorite dish that you can only get at a restaurant. Invent something. If it goes wrong, throw it in some eggs and you have an omelet. If all else fails, more sugar/butter/bacon/salt/pepper will make it taste good. Shop garage sales for good cooking supplies.

Also, whatever sports you played growing up you can still play if you look around. I made mine a job, I now ref hockey. Or look around to the youth programs and see if they need a coach if you think you know enough about it. I thought about doing this with hockey, but decided that I don't have the time to commit to it.

Fishing is easy. Grab a few beers, go down to the dock, put a line in the water, and you've got a nice peaceful couple of hours.

Luke wrote: take up skateboarding again. Who cares if you suck.

I did just that 5 years ago--so glad I did.

Also--learn to cook. You'll eat better and chicks dig it in a MAJOR way. Just start watching cooking shows and run with it.

My wife got started in stained glass making. She used to pump out multi-colored stars to hand in the window. For way less work, less time, she's making earrings with matching pendants. A woman with a jewelry store downtown gave her a spot. Every friday night a group of 8 - 16 women get together, have appetizers and wine and chit chat arts & crafts stuff.

Just doinking around in the basement, and she'll be the first to tell you she's no artist; she's got enough in her sock drawer to buy my next Challenger.

Dan