What do girls like and dislike?

The List Of Hobbies And Their Costs

Possible Conclusions

After looking into all of these hobbies, I don't think I discovered anything groundbreaking. In general, it appears like women aren't so much attracted to the cost of certain hobbies but rather to the underlying competence associated with the hobbies.

For example, a lot of the hobbies that are deemed as being the least attractive also seem to be the least skill-intensive. The more attractive hobbies all seem to have an element of creativity, self-improvement, or difficulty.

In conclusion, video games likely get a bad name because they consume a lot of time and they don't result in self-improvement, learning, or the creation of something. In general, self-destructive hobbies such as gambling are rated as very unattractive. This all makes sense to a certain degree.

Footnotes And Breakdown

Reading

Entry Cost: Reading doesn't necessarily need an entry cost. Depending on where you live, it's possible to have a reading hobby through a local library free of charge to you.

However, if you decide to buy your own books then costs can quickly add up. Especially when you need to start getting bookshelves so you can store your book collection.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Library Card Path

High: $3/hr - Buying Your Own Books

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Reading does require effort but it isn't a difficult hobby in terms of requiring great aptitude to pull off.

Foreign Languages

Entry Cost: Learning languages can be free as well or it can be really expensive. Taking the free route usually carries with it a higher cost in terms of time investment. It usually doesn't have an entry cost.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Free Online Apps

High: $100/hr - Foreign Language Classes

Relative Difficulty: 7 - Learning languages is easier for some people than others. It usually takes several hundred hours and can be very difficult depending on your native language and the language you're trying to learn.

Playing an Instrument

Entry Cost: Playing an instrument can have a pretty high entry cost. A guitar will usually cost at least $100 and a piano can usually cost $500 for an electric one. A true piano can cost thousands of dollars. Lessons are also expensive.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Free If You Teach Yourself

High: $50/hr - Lessons With An Instructor

Relative Difficulty: 8 - Learning an instrument can be extremely challenging. Especially if you're starting as an adult. It's basically like learning a new language if you learn how to read sheet music.

Cooking

Entry Cost: Cooking had a medium entry cost because you need appliances and cooking gear to get started. However, you can do a lot of cooking with pretty minimal gear.

For about $100, you can usually get a knife, some pans, and a heating element. Yet at the same time, you can spend $5,000 to get a high-end induction cooktop.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $20/hr - You'll Need To Buy Basic Ingredients

High: $100/hr - High-End Ingredients Cost Way More

Relative Difficulty: 5 - Learning to cook is pretty easy. There are probably millions of youtube videos on the topic that show you step by step exactly what to do.

Woodworking

Entry Cost: Woodworking has pretty high entry costs. Materials are also expensive.

For about $1,000, you can get a pretty solid basic setup. This would include chisels, saws, hammers, and the other essentials.

If you start getting into CNC routers and more high-end tools, you can easily spend $7,000 on woodworking tools.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $200/hr - Materials Are Expensive

High: $500/hr - High-End Hardwoods Are Super Expensive

Relative Difficulty: 6 - Getting good at woodworking is more difficult than cooking but much easier than playing an instrument or learning a foreign language. Becoming a woodworking master is more difficult than a 6 on the skill scale but it's not difficult to become competent at woodworking. Seventh graders can make wooden stools for example.

Painting

Entry Cost: Painting has a moderate entry cost. Water paints are fairly cheap but the price can ratchet up quickly as soon as you start to consider oil paints and larger canvas sizes.

A cheap painting setup can be acquired for about $50. A much higher-end setup can easily cost $500. This includes brushes, paint, and materials to paint on.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $10/hr - Water Painting For An Hour

High: $100/hr - High Art Painting For An Hour

Relative Difficulty: 9 - Becoming proficient at painting if you're not naturally gifted can take decades of effort. It requires fine detail work and hours of concentration. This makes it a difficult hobby to get good at but a lot of success can be had without being a master.

Writing

Entry Cost: Writing is super cheap. If you write with pen and paper, then the entry cost is sub $10.

However, if you write on a computer, then it can be the cost of the computer which is usually at least $300.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $2/hr - Water Painting For An Hour

High: $5/hr - High Art Painting For An Hour

Relative Difficulty: 7 - Writing a journal isn't difficult but becoming a great writer, one who can sell books is extremely difficult. As a hobby, I'd put it at a seven.

Gardening

Entry Cost: Gardening has a pretty high entry cost mostly because space is required. For a house plant setup, you can probably get into gardening for about $50.

A hydroponics setup with all the fixing could easily cost $5,000. This gives a pretty large range of entry costs for gardening.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $1/hr - Gardening Takes A Lot Of Time

High: $10/hr - Fertilizer And Exotic Plants Are Expensive

Relative Difficulty: 6 - Being successful in gardening can be difficult depending on your climate and the plants you select. There's a large community and lots of resources to help you though so it's probably easier than learning a language.

Swimming

Entry Cost: Swimming has a pretty low entry cost. Gear is also pretty inexpensive. Maybe $50 for everything.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $20/hr - A Low-Cost Pool Pass

High: $50/hr - A High-Cost Pool Pass

Relative Difficulty: 5 - Swimming is pretty easy to get into as a hobby. Most people are naturally buoyant.

Photography

Entry Cost: Photography can have a lower entry cost if you're using a $20 disposable camera.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can spend $3,500 on a Nikon Z8.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $5/hr - A Cheap Camera With No Travel

High: $500/hr - An Expensive Camera With Travel

Relative Difficulty: 7 - Photography is most certainly an art. It takes a lot of practice to get good at taking good pictures.

Astronomy

Entry Cost: Astronomy can have a lower entry cost if you're using a $100 reflector telescope.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can spend $107,995 on a Lunt Solar System 300 mm Double Stack H-Alpha Telescope.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $1/hr - A Cheap Telescope With Basic Setup

High: $5,000/hr - An Expensive Advanced Setup

Relative Difficulty: 8 - Astronomy at an advanced level can be very difficult. Especially if you're attempting to get high-quality pictures.

Hiking

Entry Cost: Hiking has a pretty low entry cost. You can spend a lot on gear but for $100 you can get a solid setup.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Local Trails Open To Public

High: $100/hr - Traveling To Hike In National Parks

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Hiking is pretty easy. It can be physically taxing but just about everyone can get into hiking provided that they're in moderate shape.

Archery

Entry Cost: Archery has a moderate entry cost. A kid archery kit can be bought for as little as $30.

On the other hand, you can easily spend $2,000 on a high-end bow.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $5/hr - Free Place To Shoot

High: $20/hr - Archery Club Membership

Relative Difficulty: 6 - Archery is an Olympic sport so naturally it can get pretty involved. However, just target shooting can be done by high schoolers in gym class. It's most certainly easier than learning a language.

Blacksmithing

Entry Cost: Blacksmithing is an expensive hobby to get into. You can take a cheap hand tool route for about $100.

However, a proper setup can cost around $1,000 pretty easily. It also requires a lot of space. It's not the sort of hobby you can do in an apartment.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $20/hr - Materials And Fuel

High: $200/hr - Materials, Fuel, Tools, And Space

Relative Difficulty: 7 - Blacksmithing is more difficult than woodworking. It's hot and it's physically taxing work. It also takes a good deal of skill.

Traveling

Entry Cost: Traveling is an expensive hobby. It doesn't matter what anyone tells you. It does however have zero entry costs as you could just start walking south if you wanted to.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $5/hr -Walking And Eating

High: $100/hr - Flying To Europe

Relative Difficulty: 2 - Traveling is pretty easy so long as you have common sense and you stay away from areas that are sketchy.

Building Models

Entry Cost: Building models can be cheap or expensive depending on what models you're building. Legos can be as inexpensive as $20 per set.

A turbofan engine kit that's 1/10 scale can cost $1,000.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $5/hr -Cheap Lego Kit

High: $100/hr - Expensive Jet Engine Kit

Relative Difficulty: 5 - Most kits have instructions so if you're literate, this hobby usually isn't too bad.

Collecting Stamps

Entry Cost: Collecting stamps doesn't really have an entry cost. You do have to pay for the stamps though.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $50/hr - Casual Collector

High: $1,000/hr - Dedicated Collector

Relative Difficulty: 2 - Most time is spent looking for stamps and deals. Consequently, stamp collecting isn't a difficult hobby provided you have the funds for it.

Dungeons And Dragons

Entry Cost: Dungeons And Dragons is really easy to get into. A cheap setup is usually around $50. A really extravagant setup could be closer to $250.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $1/hr - Playing In A Basement With Friends

High: $20/hr - Playing Seriously

Relative Difficulty: 5 - D&D can get pretty elaborate given enough time. It's a lot easier than other hobbies but it requires luck and creativity which makes it more difficult than brain dead activities.

Magic Tricks

Entry Cost: Magic tricks can be a pretty cheap hobby if you stick to card tricks and sleight of hand. In this case, your entry cost will probably be $10.

If you're going to get into extensive tricks, it can get pretty expensive. You can spend $500 on a trick kit pretty easily.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $1/hr - Card Tricks

High: $200/hr - Sawing People In Half

Relative Difficulty: 8 - Getting good at magic tricks can be very difficult. Some people might find it impossible to perform certain tricks.

Arcade Games

Entry Cost: The entry cost to play arcade games is usually around $0.5 to $2.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $3/hr - Casual Playing

High: $10/hr - Hardcore Arcade Gaming

Relative Difficulty: 2 - Arcade gaming is a pretty easy hobby to get into. Provided you have money to spend, just about anyone can play an arcade game.

Video Games

Entry Cost: Getting into video games usually costs about $500. That will buy a PS5 or an Xbox.

PC gaming is more expensive at around $1,000.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $1/hr - Lots Of Hours On Games

High: $10/hr - Lots Of Games With Few Hours

Relative Difficulty: 2 - Videogaming is another hobby that's easy to get into. It's potentially the most popular hobby among young men.

Comic Books

Entry Cost: Comic books have no real entry cost. No equipment is required to buy a comic book. Storage might be needed eventually but this can be put off for a long time or the comics can be purchased online in a digital format.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $16/hr - A $4 Comic Book Read In 15 Minutes

High: $1,000/hr - Collecting Comic Books

Relative Difficulty: 2 - A comic book hobby isn't difficult to get into. It's about the same as reading but with pictures. Comics are faster to read than books so they give a lot less value per hour.

Cosplay

Entry Cost: Cosplaying as a hobby has an entry cost of around $200 for a costume.

Certain costumes can cost as much as $1,000 to make.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Cosplaying And Posting Online

High: $20/hr - Attending Cosplay Conventions

Relative Difficulty: 5 - Making detailed cosplay costumes can be difficult and time-consuming. They can require a good deal of skill depending on the costume. They can also be pretty easy, like if you're the Mario ghost.

Drinking

Entry Cost: Drinking doesn't have an entry cost. But you typically pay a price of another sort.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $10/hr - 1 Drink Per Hour At A Bar (Rule Of Thumb)

High: $50/hr - High End Drinking

Relative Difficulty: 1 - Drinking isn't difficult. It requires no skill.

Magic The Gathering

Entry Cost: Magic The Gathering will usually cost about $40 for a standard deck.

A high-end vintage deck can cost $10,000.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $20/hr - Modern Event

High: $50/hr - Commander Pre-Con Event

Relative Difficulty: 6 - Magic The Gathing has been described as a mixture of chess and gambling. It takes two to three hours to learn and many more hours to master.

Anime

Entry Cost: Anime doesn't really have an entry cost assuming you have internet access and a screen of some sort.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - If Your A Neerdowell Rapscallion

High: $0.60/hr - Mega Fan Sub On Crunchyroll Watching 20 Hours Per Month

Relative Difficulty: 2 - Watching Anime isn't especially difficult.

Crypto

Entry Cost: Apparently Crypto is a hobby. The entry cost is maybe getting a hard wallet which is usually around $100.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - If You Just Read About Crypto

High: $25,000/hr - If You're Trading Crypto Like An Idiot

Relative Difficulty: 5 - Trading crypto is easy, making money trading crypto is difficult.

Cigars

Entry Cost: Cigars are a hobby according to the internet. The entry cost is a lighter and something to cut the cigars with. A decent setup can be acquired for $30.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $15/hr - 3 Acid Blue Remi Wafe 4" Cigars

High: $25/hr - Winston Churchill Robusto The Late Hour Series

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Smoking cigars is perhaps slightly more difficult than drinking.

Clubbing

Entry Cost: Clubbing is also apparently a hobby. Unless you're counting clothes, it doesn't really have an entry cost beyond the actual entry cost into the club but we'll include that in the hourly rate.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $25/hr - Entry And One Drink Per Hour

High: $100/hr - Higher End Entry And More Drinking

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Clubbing also isn't especially difficult.

Marijuana

Entry Cost: Some people consider Marijuana a hobby. Like Cigars, it doesn't really have an entry cost but we'll call it $30 to get into joint rolling and lighting up.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $10/hr - Cheap Weed

High: $100/hr - Expensive Weed

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Marijuana isn't exactly a difficult hobby if it can even be considered as such.

Funko

Entry Cost: Funko is a collection hobby and it doesn't really have an entry cost provided you have storage space.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $20/hr - Casual Purchases

High: $100/hr - Cocaine Grade Funko Addiction

Relative Difficulty: 1 - Collecting Funko isn't exactly difficult, but perhaps time-consuming.

Arguing Online

Entry Cost: Some people consider Arguing Online to be a hobby. It's free.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Arguing With People Is Free

High: $0/hr - Arguing With People Is Free

Relative Difficulty: 1 - It's very easy to argue with people online.

Porn

Entry Cost: Some people consider Porn to be a hobby. I don't understand exactly how that's supposed to work. However, I think it's basically free unless you're subscribing to OF accounts.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Free Porn

High: $10/hr -Expensive Porn

Relative Difficulty: 1 - I'm still not really sure how this can be considered a hobby that made the lists.

Gambling

Entry Cost: Gambling doesn't really have an entry cost aside from what we'll count in the cost per hour.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $500/hr - $5 Per Hand Blackjack

High: $100,000/hr - Throwing Life Savings Away Betting On Horses

Relative Difficulty: 3 - Losing money Gambling is pretty easy. Making money Gambling is almost impossible considering how the games are set up to give the house an edge.

Manosphere

Entry Cost: I don't see how supporting men's rights is a hobby but it made the list. The entry cost for this is basically zero. It amounts to watching YouTube videos as far as I can tell.

Cost Range Per Hour Of Entertainment:

Low: $0/hr - Free To Watch Online

High: $20/hr - Traveling To Conventions

Relative Difficulty: 1 - Watching this kind of content takes no skill.