The top free or low-cost hobbies to try in retirement

With this in mind, we’ve put together a few ideas for low cost or free hobbies that might make your retirement even more enjoyable – and may help you build a new social circle.

The best low-cost retirement hobbies

Play Board Games 

Set aside an afternoon or evening to play board games with friends or family – this is a fun, inexpensive hobby.  

What’s more, research shows that playing games – particularly board games and card games – can be enormously beneficial, helping maintain cognitive function, mental clarity and memory retention.  Games also improve social skills and interpersonal relationships, creating a space where people can come together, communicate and enjoy each other’s company.  If you’re a resident of a retirement development with a communal lounge, this could be the perfect place to get together with other residents.  You can find second hand boardgames online or in local charity shops or you can dig out games that you’ve had tucked away in the attic for years.

Games that are particularly suited to those of us who are retired include Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Backgammon, Dominoes, Mah Jong, but some of our three favourites are listed below:

Take Up Knitting

Over recent years, there’s been a resurgence of interest in knitting and hand-knitted garments. 

If you don’t have any family and friends to knit for, there are plenty of charities and children’s hospices who are grateful for knitted goods.   All you need is needles and wool – and often you can find unwanted needles and wool in charity shops, you could unravel an old and unwanted woollen item – and many of the less expensive shops stock wool these days. 

If you have never knitted, there are lots of ‘how to knit’ videos online.   If you are an accomplished knitter, ideas for charities looking for knitters are listed in an article in Prima magazine. 

Knitting and natter groups exist all over the country, where you can knit in company, enjoying a chat and a coffee whilst doing so.  In Oxfordshire, there are knitting and natter groups in Thame and Wheatley for example, but if there isn’t a local group you could start your own and, if you need a bit of guidance, you can find out more here.

Learn a language

Whilst learning a language in a structured lesson can be more costly, there are plenty of options to learn a language for free or at a very low cost. 

•   Join the U3A – check if your local group offers languages. To join any group you will need to be a member and membership costs vary according to the group but are often around £20 a year.  Take a look at our blog entitled ‘Guide to the University of The Third Age’ which features on the ‘advice’ section of our website blogs.

•   YouTube has plenty of language teaching videos as well as potential learning material including songs, movies with or without subtitles and individual lessons on certain grammatical points.

•   Websites offering e-learning language courses are becoming popular and there are many free language learning websites for learners of all levels of fluency. Some require paid subscriptions but many are free.

•   Apps help you learn the language and if you practise on a daily basis and work through the levels, you will soon become more confident.   There are some totally free apps but lots have premium add-ons if you have a low budget.   Duolingo is a free app for learning languages and more than 40 languages are on offer including  French, Spanish, Italian and the Eastern European languages.

Write poetry, a novel or anything that interests you

There’s a book in all of us, as the saying goes – and retirement is a good time to let the book out.  It may be that you have a great idea for a story or that you have had a fascinating life or an incredible experience that you could write about.

You might be drawn to poetry rather than narrative fiction or non-fiction – or even writing plays.  You don’t need much to start writing but it’s best to learn something about structure, narrative thread and, of course, character development if you are considering fiction. 

There are writing groups in many towns and these generally have a leader who manages each session.   Members bring along a piece of their writing – could be part of a chapter they are working on, a poem or a piece of prose to read aloud and the other members give positive, helpful criticism to help each writer improve their work.  This is a great learning experience and a social occasion – and you get to hear lots of different types of writing but it’s not for everyone. 

You can also write just for yourself.  Once again, there are plenty of websites that provide information on getting started and online courses, some of which are free of charge.  Writing can be cathartic but beware – it can be addictive!

Try Upcycling

Upcycling is gaining in popularity and can be a fantastic hobby for retirees.   Upcycling is giving anything a new lease of life – from unwanted clothing to repainting a coffee table or restoring chairs.