In my town, there's a lot of beautiful parks to hang out at. I can take a workshop down at the library. The museums sometimes have free admission days. There's lots of great things to do at low or no cost, you just have to look for them.

This is one place where traditional social media shines. Following local establishments on Facebook, or joining your city's subreddit, can keep you in the loop about cheap or free events in your city.

Thrifting can cost money if you buy things, but walking around is free. Bigger city = more thrift stores.

Similarly, I love walking having access to ethnic grocery stores. Spices are cheaper, you have access to organ meats, etc… that are also cheaper. It’s fun to walk into a Filipino or Korean grocery store, do a little research and try to cook something with ingredients I’ve never tried before.

My tiny apartment is on a busy street so it’s also fun to do a little people watching. If I walk to the gas station to get a soda ( <10 minutes) I get to see a ton of activity any time of day.

Festivals are pretty frequent and fun to walk around even if I don’t spend anything. I live near a university as well so there’s always stuff going on.

I’ve lived in a rural area before and couldn’t stand it. Absolutely nothing to do other than go walk around Walmart.

Exercise are good ways to learn your city on your own or with friends.

Libraries.

Parks.

I'm surprised I don't see people adding the beach to list of free activities, in LA that's a great option as well as a ton of hiking options. I grew up poor here so I'm quite used to all the random things you can do (my favorite might be Getty Villa, a rich guy made that free forever and you can look at really cool artifacts).

Also there are cheap eats in the city if you know where to look, although even my 7 dollar burritos are up to 12 post-Trump. Still cheaper, though. Don't judge a huge place like LA by how much they charge tourists at the boardwalk or something.

Edit: oh and shit like Pie Fest. Our local NPR affiliate hosts and promotes a ton of really neat and often free activities. (They just started their fall drive)

Edit 2: oh and being a live studio audience is free. Probably true in NYC too.

I realize im still spending money by being in my house

I have heard that some people spend their days at work...

I live in a big old house from the 1800s with my fiance and a roommate and a dog, with a little yard but it's tucked away from a lot of the hustle and bustle. My closest neighbor is about 100 feet away.

This is still in city limits. I can just as easily walk, bike, bus, drive wherever to go do fun things. But what you were describing of being occupied at home by hobbies and things to do still applies to me. I've been slowly renovating the house myself over the years. Just been working a lot of overtime lately so it's a bit hard to find the time.

This is in Pittsburgh PA. Most of where people live is in similar situations of old 100+ year old multi-bedroom homes. There are some new "modern" or "luxury" apartments going in around town but if you live in one of those you're literally just an idiot or an outsider to the area and think that $1.5k rent for a 1br is "cheap" (my whole mortgage is $860 split 3 ways for context)

I'm an Uber nerd andI learn to pirate content. Yes you still need an internet connection and a computer or phone but I can spend days trying to figure out how to install Graphene on my old phone or do something fun or crazy for my home assistant.

Btw, I'm not poor. I just enjoy doing these things.

A lot of interesting answers here. I'd like to talk about something related: everything is rented. Especially in a big city.

You'll pay to rent a home, a car, a bike, a seat (on a bus or in a place). Especially when you're in a big city, you don't own much of anything. You'll rent a car by getting a taxi or using a ride share service or similar, just so you can get around, or rent a bike to do the same in one of the many variations of public bike sharing services. Then you'll rent an apartment for a place to live, never buying or owning property of your own. Some people even rent to own their furniture and appliances.

Even those that "buy" a car are often on a lease agreement, which is just an exclusive rental with the option to buy at a discount at the end.

Your phone is probably on some kind of payment programme with your carrier so technically that's a form of rental as well.

You'll finance computers and other expensive items, which you don't technically own until the balance is paid in full.

When living in a city, I'm not sure exactly what you personally own.... At most it's a short list of personal effects... Maybe a few things from Ikea? Some dishes and utensils?

... And it's only getting more and more extreme. There's subscription and rental services for almost everything now.

I live outside of any major cities in my area and I own most everything I have. I still have a mortgage, which is a sentence I wasn't sure I would ever be able to say, but here I am.... And I have a few debts, but my name is on the deed to my property, my car is paid off, I paid back my student loans... Other than some credit cards and my house, I own everything I have, outright. I used to live in a city and bluntly, I didn't own much when I did.

I had somewhat of a debate going with, of all people, a prospective employer, during an interview even. His position was that everything would end up being rented/leased/whatever, with the only exceptions being subscription services for stuff like food and services. He was convinced that was the way things were headed and it was only a matter of time. At that time, I disagreed with him, but looking at everything now, is only proving his point. I got that job by the way.

So my answer for OP is, not much, and the list is getting shorter all the time.

hobbies, most of them still cost something but it varies and you can usually keep or re-sell the equipment, bonus points if you can find someone else to enjoy them with

Crack. The trick is you forget you spent the money in the first place.

When you live in a big city you learn where you can spend time on the cheap. Look for libraries, beaches, parks.

If you find the right Cafe/bar/tavern, be kind and tip well a couple times and they won't get sore if you nurse a pint while grinding out the last hundred pages of Dune.