Books. I’m rediscovering the joy of reading before bed.

Pick locks shoplift stalk the wealthy and their renfields security us a fun rewarding exciting and potentially profitable hobby

When I'm not working to get our house and garden into some sort of shape, I read: mostly sci-fi and fantasy. Sadly, many of my favourite books are now only available digitally, but you might find copies in charity shops. I also read modern stories; a few suggestions from both old and modern are listed below:

Julian May

Roger Zelazny

Ben Aaronovitch

Mike Carey

Acoustic guitar. My first guitar was €50. After that, you only need maybe a pack of strings every now and then and maybe a pick or two.

Pretty cheap entry as far as hobbies go but, like most hobbies, you can throw obscene money at instruments if you want to. You can also just stick with your first cheap guitar for years.

but in diy?

Have you heard about our Lord and Savior, disc golf?

On top of reading, I've been recycling out-of-date Kindles.

Here's a link to Kindle Modding

You can get a nigh-indestructable e-reader for very cheap, recycle something in the process, and it holds over a thousand books.

Hell, it's so satisfying I've been handing them out to friends and family.

Also you get to rip intellectual property right out of Jeff Bezos hands! What's not to like?

Observation and listening.

Learning bird ID with a second hand book. Learning all the different calls and how they change throughout the day and year.

Plant ID. Where do they grow, flourish, struggle? When do they flower? Which grow together? Which are the pioneer species when land is cleared? What do they look like when they're first sprouting?

Take some identification books and some scrap paper with pencils.

D&D or other TTRPGs. There are plenty of free systems and those that use only d6s, so the materials are trivial. Check out Mini Six Barebones Edition for a good starter system. You need like 2 friends to play with.

Self-pleasure. It's all I can afford.

Warhammer 40k has entered the chat

It technically involves a phone, but I took up Walkscape.

It’s addictive enough that I went from walking an average of 3000 steps a day to 10,000 Fun, step-based crafting game

Books have helped me with this in the past year. It's easy to slot it in where you'd usually reach for your phone. Those 30-60 minute blocks with nothing to do, like before bed, or waiting at the doctors, or just waiting before leaving somewhere, I found it beneficial to read a book then.

Havey you considered crack cocaine?

Cheap small offline eink reader and, well, there are quite a few ways to acquire basically endless amounts of books.

Photography and knitting

Get a cheap keyboard or guitar (or bass).

Rubik's cube, should keep you busy for a while. Get a 7€ magnetic Moyu and begin with the tutorial that's on the Wired YouTube channel

May I suggest simple crafting, like whittling, ancient/native pottery, wood carving, paper basket weaving, origami, crochet (or the slightly more addictive and expensive knitting), braiding, weaving, macrame, yarn spinning, decorative knotworking, flower pressing, dyemaking, hand dying, flower arrangement, make walking canes, etc?

Or maybe an instrument? Someone mentioned guitar, but why not harmonica, ukulele, bongos, simple percussives, or why not take up singing, there's typically a choir almost everywhere, or you could try solo, or whistling, or yodeling.

Or maybe take up gardening/growing? In pots, hydroponically, maybe on a growing lot, or someone's yard?

Or take up community projects, like either sanctioned or guerilla gardening, greening, forestry, litter picking, maintaining communal spaces, volunteer, start a community project (pollination diversity, bee keeping, growing lots, food drive, food forestry)

Or take up a cause? Build community, take affirmative action, demonstrate, protest, coordinate, communicate, with an established org, or on your own?

Maybe the outdoors could entice? Take up walking, ornithology, watch bats, discover new insects, take up chabana/ikebana, learn to forage, learn survival skills, go hiking, stack rocks, track animals, learn trapping, get into scouting, make bark boats, learn to skip rocks, climb trees, jump in puddles, pretend (or practice) animistic rituals, feel rain on naked skin, sleep under a bare sky, learn to forage, pick skulls, horns and bones to craft with.

Perhaps create stories, tell stories, write poetry, learn magic, juggle, poi, take up clowning, go swing/country/folk/traditional/ballroom/social dancing, try Butoh, write sketches, join a theatre, start a business, take up decorating, or just embrace whimsy?

I can also warmly recommend trying a new thing every week/month/period and see what sticks and not.

Modular synths

If you're in England: Morris dancing. Seriously. It's experiencing a resurgence. More young people than you'd expect. More queer people than you'd expect. I pay about 30 quid a year in dues to my team, and it'll get you out of the house at least one evening a week and probably several days dancing out at folk festivals through spring and summer.

Pickleball!