Walk. Just like I would hike when I lived rurally, walk. There are trails along the River and through the woods, even in the middle of town. But there’s also sidewalks. A town common. Parks. Several playgrounds have pickup basketball if your knees are better than mine, or there’s a track within an easy walk for some more regimented exercise. Our favorite activity starting during Covid is to walk around our city, seeing the sights. It was a great chance to talk with my kids for hours, before they went off to college. And yes we played Pokémon go as something to do while walking (and a game like that is much better in cities), and met several groups of people that way. If that game is too nerdy or childish, there are apps that gamify walking in various ways. If you’re willing to spend a little, sometimes we would stop at a convenience store for a soda or something, but not always.

When I lived in the major city, it was the same only much more. Every weekend had a festival (free). Every weekend had a band playing somewhere outside free. Every weekend had some big free event at multiple parks. Every Wednesday was free museums. Walking the waterfront is really cool and entirely free. Tourist areas sometimes have street entertainers, free. My city is very walkable and has many colleges: every weekend had some event at some college. My city has a lot of history and tourism, organized as a free “trail” and with most historic things free. There are things like a sailing ship that is free to see: you would have to pay for the museum and gift shop but why would you? Read the historic plaques. If a building or something looks historic, look it up.

For a relatively small amount of money, one of my favorite activities was the farmers market: it was huge and cheap (although I haven’t been in many years). Sometimes I just wanted to walk around and see everything (that shopping is selling whole goats?), or I could buy a week’s worth of veggies fresh from the farm for pennies on the dollar. And connect that back to food prep: when I didn’t have much money or time, I’d take all Saturday, goto the farmers market, come back and put together a giant salad for the week, a pasta salad for the week, maybe marinate some meat in some ingredients I bought- basically get half my cooking and shopping out of the way, dirt cheap

For a relatively small amount of money, much cheaper than operating a car, I usually had a subway pass. The core of that major city is very walkable, but the pass opened the entire city by just hopping on a convenient train without having to think about spending in the moment.

As far as staying in the small apartment goes, being in an urban area means gigabit fiber, which I guess a lot of people still don’t have. Being a first class citizen online is priceless and opens a lot of free (after your internet bill) activities involving sitting at your desk

I would like to kick this back to you, what do you do outside of a big city that is free?

if you already own an apartment in a city, the chances are that you’d grow used to the space and you’d feel at home, and anything lacking is made up for with closer proximity and easier access to stores and public facilities.

i live in hong kong, one of the densest cities in the world, and i’m able to live comfortably. there’s very little noise where i live because it’s in a less urban area, i get a fantastic view of and immediate access to a riverside park, a mall full of great food and boba just a 15-minute walk away, a library and a big transit hub just a short bus ride away, and from that transit hub, very cheap access to all of hong kong for museum visits, sightseeing, hella hiking and biking trails, exhibitions, etc.

i’ve also lived in berlin for a bit. it was also in a less urban area, in a very tiny apartment, and i was still fine because i had very similar access to amenities. short walk for groceries and transit, access to museums and parks, loads of architecture to admire, and hella döner.

if you’ve only experienced cities in north america… i’m sorry.

The ducks in my local park are free

If you’re a musician, look for open mics / open jams and try to make friends in the scene. Musician-organized diy events are cheap and fun. Especially punk events are cheap.
If you’re interested in art, look for local diy group exhibitions and performances and ask if you can volunteer for support.
If you’re into hacking/diy look for local repair cafes and ask to volunteer.
If you’re into rpg go hang out in local game shops and find a group to play with.
It really depends on what you consider fun!

I don’t live in a big city. But, disc golf generally isn’t expensive to get into. Really fun. If you can get around a bit to courses.

I watch tv with my friends once a week 😎

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.

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.

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

I spend a lot of time in my workshop. It’s not free but upcycling materials into something new is infinitely satisfying and often saves money.

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.

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)

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.