"Cutting Out Amazon Prime": 34 Folks Reveal Frugal Hacks They Plan to Implement In 2025

On literally the first day of 2025, an interesting thread appeared in the AskReddit community, where the topic starter—user u/riddlestheanswer—asked netizens: "What things are you doing in 2025 to both save money and find more fulfillment?"

The author explained that they personally want more financial freedom in the new year—and this, combined with the difficult economic situation, actually means cutting some expenses. For example, on hobbies that do not bring much joy, but are quite expensive. And so, the topic starter asked people online about various "frugal hobbies" for the new year.

It must be said that among the answers to the author's question—and there are almost 200 of them today—there are ideas about which things should be abandoned in the new year, as well as hobbies that allow a person to acquire many useful skills. Which, in turn, provide an opportunity to save.

For example, many readers admit that the ability to sew or cook well are incredibly useful skills that not only bring them joy, but also make them more thrifty. After all, home-cooked meals will, in any case, be cheaper than meals from a restaurant. And much healthier than, for example, fast food. This means that it's also an opportunity to save on probable treatment and medications.

"These are the basic foundations of economics at the micro level - that is, at the level of an individual household or any person. When there's a financial opportunity, then the person tries to delegate some areas of their life to professionals," says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of Intent news agency from Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "And so it has been for centuries."

"Because, all other things being equal, for example, a professional chef will cook food faster and tastier than any of us. But the cost of any ready-made dish, in addition to the cost of ingredients, includes many other factors and markups. Therefore, when it becomes difficult for us to regularly eat ready-made food, we begin to cook ourselves."

It's not surprising—after all, the purchasing power of the population in the modern economy is gradually decreasing. For example, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average purchasing power of the consumer dollar in the U.S. city has decreased by almost half in over a quarter of a century.

So many people are just trying to save money—but at the same time, the modern person is looking for hobbies that interest to them.

"Decades and centuries of social development have done their job - modern people are no longer ready to just do something that is not interesting to them, just in order to save some money. Ideally, this should bring not only savings, but also joy. Therefore, such threads are quite reasonable nowadays," Valery Bolgan explains.

So, various and numerous interesting hobbies, useful for everyday life, are trending these days. Just as in the era when stamped factory goods dominated, handmade things are incredibly highly valued again... So, please feel free to scroll through this list to the end, and in case you have similar hobbies, please share them here. Or maybe tell us what New Year's resolutions you have also made for yourself.