Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.

Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    1 year ago

    Self-hosting apps / homelab

    Getting used enterprise gear is not prohibitively expensive, but the electric bills balloon very quickly.

  • ickplant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Knitting. Super cheap to start, you can pick up a set of needles and some acrylic yarn for under $20. But when you start getting into nice yarns and bigger pieces, you are spending hundreds of dollars on yarn alone for a blanket or a sweater. And you want nice needles in all sizes as well as all types (double pointed, regular and circular)… more hundreds of dollars.

    Moral of the story is if a friend knits you something with nice yarn, please appreciate it. Lots of effort and thought went into it.

    • Hepco@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just started crocheting, and I’m just holding myself back from buying all the yarn, it’s gonna get bad

  • Moonguide@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Coffee. I’m in a coffee producing country. It could be as cheap as grabbing a bag from the coffee institute (really good and cheap), a cloth filter and call it a day. Instead, I’m on my second espresso machine, fourth grinder, second portafilter set, and have all the doodads to make it just how I like it.

  • jaschen@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    3D printing. Purchased a cheap 3D printer to save money printing things instead of buying things. 5 printer print farm later, no idea why I’m doing this to myself.

  • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Surprised there’s no reef tank people here. Imagine spending $5000 on a 20 gallon fish tank - BEFORE spending any money on corals.

    Ya it CAN be done for $50, but nobody does that.

  • Yonrak@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Coffee.

    I blame James Hoffman entirely.

    Within a year I went from:

    Drinking instant coffee at home, but really enjoying “proper coffee”

    To

    Buying a cafetiere (~£15) + preground coffee

    To

    Buying a Nespresso (~£60 on offer) + pods

    To

    Buying a budget espresso machine (~£120) + preground coffee

    To

    Wasting my money on a cheap manual coffee grinder (~£50) + beans

    To

    Immediately replacing it with an entry level Sage grinder (~£170)

    To

    Buying an entry Level “proper” espresso machine (~£700)

    It took me a good 2-3 weeks of practicing and dialling in before pulling a good shot of coffee that I’d actually want to drink, but by that point it was also about learning a new skill, learning how different aspects of the process affect the end result and learning how to make all sorts of different espresso-based drinks.

    My girlfriend thought I was nuts at first, but a year or so later even she agrees it was worth the investment. I still for the life of me can’t get the hang of latte art though.

    The problem is now though that I’m a waaaay more critical of coffee from coffee shops, because I spent a long time making bad coffee whilst learning!

  • plactagonic@sopuli.xyzOP
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    1 year ago

    For me it is maybe camping.

    I just tested my new sleeping bag - under 0.5kg rated to -5°C. And realised that I bought/ replaced lots of gear to higher quality gear over few years.

  • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This is not the first post where I feel it but I love it so much that we have a lot of people on Lemmy that can talk about things not related to computers!

  • Luxsidus@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Mechanical keyboards. The next one is my endgame, I swear. Just one more groupbuy for those keycaps. It never truly ends.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Tinkering with electronics. Like, breadboards, integrated circuits, transistors, microcontrollers.

    I’ve got a tacklebox full to bursting with components and parts worth probably close to a grand.

  • Osprey@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Gardening.

    Containers are surprisingly expensive. And you need a lot of soil to fill them, which gets expensive too. Then it’s impossible to only buy the seeds you need, when there are so many cool varieties…

    • Zippy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      2000 into my fully automated hydroponic weed factory. Another 500 to make my nutrient solutions from scratch. Mind you that 500 dollars when making from scratch likely last 20 years of crops. It does make a good 1.5 pounds of dry weed every 3 to 4 months with the for legal plants allowed in Canada. I barely smoke so give nearly all away.

      Three year prior, harvested a crop down right before going to Mexico for three month trip. Was still some shoots barely growing so for shits and giggles I turn the lights back to 22 hours per day to see if they would go back to the veg state. Have camera so can watch it remotely. Shit starts fully growing like a new plant. Anyhow COVID puts a wrinkle in my return. Ended up in Mexico for 18 months. Over that time, thing kept growing like nuts. Automation on water replacement and nutrient injection along with pH monitoring. Became sort of a how long can this thing go with near zero human intervention. Had only to send my brother in law in three times to cut it down and refill my nutrient injectors from solutions I made before leaving.

    • plactagonic@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      I unintentionally grow weed because I made some tincture for grandma.

      Now it just grows on my garden and I can’t get rid of it.