You reminded me: Garage sales/estate sales can be a good source of cheap supplies and tools.
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This also makes me think of bird watching
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i thought of two other ones!
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playing music. once you have your instrument, it’s cheap, and you can get secondhand instruments pretty easily
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writing. so cheap and so fun. write a story, a memoir, a poem, a song … very rewarding!
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Another local rec: if you’re on SNAP, you can get $5 tickets to arts/music/cultural events at participating organizations via Arts for All: https://racc.org/artsforall/
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Also also: many performance organizations use volunteers as ushers in exchange for a free ticket!
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I mean, there are GOOD REASONS for it, mainly protecting Indigenous fishing rights, but yea it’s priiiicey for specifically the main rivers/tributaries locally. It’s cheaper outside the columbia river basin
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Also…guerilla gardening! In fact many hobbies are much cheaper when you add the word guerilla!
Online fitness - lots of programs where you can get jacked/have fun without the gym.
Dance (our santa claus parade had a lot of dance troupes and one float was smart enough to play Spice Girls - you know all the millenials watching were doing our choreography perfectly)
Dominos. Either the game or the little stacky course thing (I need at least one more set because I am getting good. I made a 2 level one!)
Board games/cards
Volunteering in an area of interest (this can also get you in the pipeline for supplies if needed)
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Pot lucks, hiking, city strides (trying to walk/bike every street in your city), rec center/library classes, going to parks (especially with kids!), farmers markets/free festivals, instead of going to bars to watch sports invite friends over and rotate houses, board games (many board game bars allow you to check out games for free), YouTube yoga/fitness classes.
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yes I was thinking with reading, make it a book club!!
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There are expensive ways and frugal ways to do everything…including different hobbies. I mean, you can cook an outstanding pot of baked mac’n cheese, or you can cook filet mignon! It’s really all about attitude and being creative with the resources available to you.
For any hobby check on YouTube and Google first to see what’s involved. Maybe talk to a local group. Libraries and community arts centres or makerspaces often have free or nominal cost groups. There you can learn what’s involved in a hobby, and the ins and outs of it.
Then check out thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, online free sites, etc., for free or cheap tools and supplies. Ask friends and family. You never know who has Great-Granny’s knit needles (I was recently given my grandmother’s fine knit needles for knitting lace).
Be aware that in certain hobbies buying cheap tools initially may just result in frustration.
For example, in traditional rug hooking you really need to buy a good hoop, which will set you back $25-50, depending on the size you buy. You can cheat by using a crochet hook instead of a rug hook, and alternative fibres instead of wool flannel. And you can start on high quality burlap without slubs (about $10-15/yd, as opposed to primitive linen at $30/yd). But you need something to hold the backing (burlap) good and taut, or you’ll just waste money by finding something that will…or give up hooking.
You can also replace buying the expensive wool cutter (for over $500) by hand cutting alternative fibres and using them. Hook primitive style, which is wide strips of fibre, to reduce time spent cutting. If you have it, you can use a quilter’s rotary cutter to cut cotton t-shirts (from the thrift store) for hooking. And, eventually, when you have a few hundred to drop on a cutter, you can spring for a Sissix. At about $300, it’s half the price of the other cutters out there.
Reading is a good free hobby. Libraries are cheap to free. Plus there’s oodles of free resources online. Project Gutenberg etc.
Drawing can be done with any marking tool and on any paper…including napkins. Though not very long lasting, napkin art has contributed to the advancement of humankind. My engineer relative assures me of its importance in brainstorming ideas and sketching rough plans. 
Seriously though, copy paper and a black gel pen are good enough art supplies for most people.
Those are just a few ideas.
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Cards. I played cards with friend groups in college and beyond. There are SO many different card games, and the majority require only a single standard poker deck. In my 30s I had a friends group that did potlucks once a week and played different card games (sometimes board games or simple games like bananagrams). Recently I joined a class/group at a local library that was focused on Bridge and learned (re-learned) for free. I fell in with some folks to be an alternate in their group (they play casually, not competitively) and now I play most weeks once a week with them., either hosted by a centrally located person, or at the library (all for free).
I recently rescued 2 wooden cribbage boards (pegs included) from the dump swap shop (free) and I wish I knew anyone who knows cribbage… 
I love card games.
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I feel like I can tell what your hobby of choice is from the specificity of this
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We really should hang out in person some time.
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Random reasonably cheap hobbies of mine:
- Reading has been mentioned, I don’t know if writing has…I think that’s how I used up most of my old high school notebooks. Now it’s mostly straight to the computer, not sure what kind of access they might have there.
- Computer programming. Unlike when I started there are a lot of learn-to-code options out there that people can try out if there’s something they’d like to build. I do hardware stuff too, but that’s not necessarily cheap especially starting out
- Origami. Personally I do modular (make a lot of small pieces and then build, kind of like do-it-yourself paper blocks), but as long as you can get scrap paper into a reasonable square shape the basic stuff is pretty doable
- Puzzles. I pick them up from the local thrift stores for $0.50 or $1 (when I can–recently they’ve been pricing stuff weirdly high so I have to wait for sale days), put them together, and then either donate them back/pass them to friends/toss them if there are a bunch of missing pieces.
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Not a bad guess. I’m all over anything fibre or textile related! Repurposing old textiles is one of my specialties!
I sew and quilt too. I use old clothes (blue jeans) for fabric to sew tote bags. My family are sewers from my grandmother on down. We save scrap fabric to make quilts. And sometimes old clothes for that too…just cut around the bad parts and use the good.
Quilt batting can be polyester (cheap) tied quilts. Or old woollen blankets (I kid you not - I made a quilt with a 50 year old grey camp blanket in it once…the owner claims it’s very warm! ).
Backing can be a thrift store sheet.
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This seems relevant (seen on IG)
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I know someone mentioned bird watching already, but I will say that bird & plant ID is free with use of a smartphone. Add that to the library, and you can learn how to forage for beneficial plants.
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Plus some FB groups like Oregon Native Plants.
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Coffee snobbery can actually be pretty cheap! Especially if you normally go out and buy coffee. Don’t get into espresso, that’s never gonna be cheap but a pour over cone from mellita, a gooseneck kettle, and make an adventure of finding local beans you love. Lean into James Hoffman to optimize. Get an aeropress and learn all the different methods for it. Same with a stovetop percolator. All of those are circa $20 and you can get real nerdy and fussy with them and make great coffee.
Biggest area to keep it cheap at first is to either have the cafe grind for you, or buy a cheap hand crank grinder and accept that you’ll have to fix the grind setting pretty often lol. Good grinders get expensive fast.
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Sorry, hadn’t seen her response yet. Apologies.