Spain's guide to free stuff: from day-old bread to public libraries

The catalogue of free things: libraries, mushrooms and day-old bread

A public library, a fishing rod made from a plastic bottle and 100 metres of cheap fishing line, a walk in the woods looking for mushrooms. The list of things that cost no direct money is longer than it seems, and someone has gone to the trouble of inventorying it with itemised prices. The starting point is a clarification worth pinning down: free here means there is no direct monetary outlay for the person using it. Libraries are paid for with taxes, yes, but you pay the same whether you go or not.

Within that framework, the inventory starts with sport —walking, running, swimming in the sea or a river, calisthenics— and moves on to culture. That's where the goldmine appears: every book in the public libraries, all the training you want with internet and some English, and every catalogue of music, film and reading you can get your hands on. Food also gets a mention, with a detail worth reading slowly.

Fishing for under 10 euros: the shopping list

The breakdown of handline fishing is the closest thing to a spreadsheet in the whole piece. 100 metres of cheap line for 2 euros. A plastic bottle to wind it around, free if you recycle one, or some plastic rings for 3 euros if you want luxury. Treble hooks and a float, 4 euros. And the bait: stale bread, which you ask for at the bakery and usually comes free. Total: less than a tenth of the price of a cinema ticket.

The problem is that fishing isn't as free as it looks. The third-class licence, the one needed to fish from the shore, costs about 15 euros and is valid for three years, according to the figures being cited. Fishing without it means confiscation of the rod and a fine, which in one particular Spanish region is set at 60 euros. And there's more: taking crabs, sandworms or limpets for bait out of season can bring a 300-euro penalty. The fine print of free stuff always catches up with you.

The bicycle: transport that burns no fuel

The bike is the perfect example of something that isn't free but stops costing money. Once you own it, it uses no fuel and covers long distances. The second-hand market confirms it: an old mountain bike sold for 25 euros and lasted ten minutes in the listing. Some people argue that all you need is a sign asking for old bikes at people's homes, because people give them away when they no longer use them.

The other side is the price of new ones. An analysis doing the rounds asks how it's possible that an ordinary bicycle costs the same as a 125cc motorbike or a second-hand car. The comparison is no small matter: if the motorless two-wheeler has become a luxury good, the case for cheap mobility has a hole in it.

Free time that never hits the till

Free leisure has its own list: sunbathing, playing chess or cards, meeting friends and family in a park, public concerts, hiking, rural churches and chapels, birdwatching and chatting with the old folks in the square. Chess deserves a special mention: you can play for free on online platforms, learn from videos and buy a board for between 3 and 10 euros at a neighbourhood shop. Tens of thousands of hours of fun for the price of a coffee.

Some take exercise to its most austere extreme: push-ups at home, old dumbbells rescued from the back of a cupboard, routines to keep muscle without a gym. Others reuse envelopes, paper written on one side only and cardboard packaging. Repairing appliances comes up as a profitable hobby: if you have tools and have been keeping spare parts, there comes a point when replacements are free. A tower fan rescued from the rubbish was fixed by bypassing the power button.

The phone as a Library of Alexandria

The most repeated argument is the knowledge one. All of humanity's knowledge fits in a pocket-sized device, provided there's internet, a terminal and basic search skills. The return, the argument goes, is infinite if you know how to use it. And something stands out: most people don't seem to have realised it.

The list continues with things that cost nothing and aren't always valued: taking a nap, watching clouds, throwing stones, origami with any scrap of paper, store opening parties, free museums and zoos in some cities, sleeping in your car wherever you please. Also mentioned: rummaging through bins to resell on second-hand platforms, or using emulators to play classic games.

The 'free' trap: taxes, licences and fine print

The strongest objection is that nothing is truly free. Walking treads on streets someone paid for; so does running; swimming uses beaches and rivers that someone maintains; calisthenics requires eating, and eating costs money. Libraries are funded by taxes and internet access requires a device and a connection. Public concerts have artists and logistics behind them. The conclusion of this line of thinking is that free is an accounting illusion: someone pays, even if it isn't you at the time.

The other objection is more uncomfortable: when something costs no money, you are the product. It comes up in connection with apps and services offered free of charge and funded with data. And some remind us that what is free today may stop being so: the list of things that have come to require payment or a licence is long, and the trend gives no cause for optimism.

The detail that throws you off isn't in the list of free things, but in its fine print. Fishing with 100 metres of cheap line costs 2 euros, but the fine for doing it without a licence or out of season can multiply that figure by 150. In Spain, free almost always comes with an official gazette attached.