Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Vacation Exercise

Our local tennis court has seen better days.

Mrs. K and I had a vacation day yesterday, so we took a bike ride down to the tennis courts for a little exercise. Actually, the original plan was to just bike to the ice cream shoppe, but I thought we should play a little tennis to help justify our ice cream treats.

I had never really thought about it before, but tennis is a pretty inexpensive hobby to take up. A couple of $20 or $30 tennis rackets, a few dollars worth of tennis balls and you're all set. Almost every city has a free tennis court that you can go to and most have several. Also, unlike basketball or baseball or other balls, you only need two people to play. Some courts even have a wall so you can play with yourself, err by yourself.

After your initial investment you can basically play free for years. You might occasionally need new tennis balls or another racket if you go all John McEnroe on it. If you're frugal like me, a set of tennis balls can last a very long time. Compare this to something like golf where you're paying $20 or more every time you go out. After skipping two rounds of golf you could purchase what you need to play tennis for the rest of your life. Ok maybe not the rest of your life, but for a very long time. Plus, with tennis you can get a lot more exercise, especially when you first start and are chasing the balls across multiple courts.

What are your favorite cheap hobbies?

2 comments:

  1. I really like playing tennis and I'm trying to get playing more since there's a big free court a short walk away. It really is a pretty cheap sport. I also try to regularly go rollerblading which is also inexpensive once you already own rollerblades. When I get back in better shape I'm going to try to get into soccer again too.

    As for playing with yourself, I guess on the tennis courts wouldn't be a very appropriate place lol.

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    1. We used to rollerblade but now have switched to biking. Also inexpensive once you own them but a little steep up front cost. We didn't have soccer in our school growing up so we never got the chance to get into it.

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