The Unofficial Kiwi Poorfag Resource Thread - share recipes and resources for your area (both government and personal) here

[toilet_rainbow]

The idea for this thread came up in the Polissa Campbell thread, which covers an e beggar that whines that she has nothing while being on full government assistance that she squanders (example: spending half of her EBT on just soda) and regularly being provided stuff like food and a car by her family members. Often times she'll lament that she needs $50 for a couple days of Jimmy Dean bowls and Hot Pockets, only for Kiwis to come up with meal ideas that she can make for her husband and her for $15 and under.

This advice will be wasted on lolcows like Polissa or any of the countless others on this site. But if you want help in say, figuring out what you can make with what you have in your cupboard because payday is not for another couple days, throw it in here and see what you get. You may be surprised.

If you are, have been, or know a poorfag, feel free to share tips and tricks that have helped you or others deal with the shittiness that is poverty. Examples include dinners that you eat or regularly ate that weren't just plain ramen, finding ways to get economically sound (and safe) sources of water if your pipes are shit, government programs to reduce or cover expenses, etc. While most Kiwis are from Burgerland, feel free to add resources and tips for whichever part of the world you live in. You may not only help another Kiwi, but also teach the foreigners a new thing or two about your area!

Sister Threads:

Household Tips and Tricks
Home Remedies, Folk Cures, and Granny Cures
Recession/Poor Bastard's Food Guide
Money Saving Tips

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

 

[Owls Owls Owls]

You want a good breakfast? Go to Kroger, buy a box of oatmeal.

Do you like sweet oatmeal? Buy a container of yogurt. Cook half a cup of oatmeal in a microwave for two minutes. Add yogurt.

Do you like savory oatmeal? Buy soy sauce and eggs. Cook one egg over easy, add soy sauce to your oatmeal, top it with the fried egg. The broken yolk on the oats+soy sauce is delicious. Just trust me. This is my favorite way of eating oatmeal.

Total cost: far less than $10 and gives you breakfast for days.

Here is a Kiwi tip that improved my lazy meals considerably!

 

[Thomas Paine]

Poverty/Student's Bangers & Mash Recipe.

Ingredients:
One packet of instant mashed potatoes. (Garlic ones are the best)
Any variety of steak sauce.
Cheap ass hot dogs.

Chop up 4 hotdogs and fry them in a pan. Pour steak sauce into pan and thin with water until runny. Cook over medium heat until sauce reduces and sticks to hotdogs.

Follow directions for instant mashed potatoes(microwave/stovetop).

Mix hotdogs and mashed potatoes together. Makes huge portion for like 2 dollars. Steakhouse taste, very filling, stays hot for a long time.

 

[Dumb Bitch Smoothie]

Not a poorfag but I live like one to survive.

If you aren't a fag about your personal data, monetize it. Honey, Ebates, Ibotta, etc. have some really good deals for

Qmee is the best "earn money for taking surveys" app because you can cash out at any time, most require a $10 minimum.

Flipping thrift store finds is a solid option if you're targeting a niche. I've made a few grand off of people looking for Power Rangers toys alone. You can look for toys, clothing (relist on secondhand sites), housewares, furniture, etc.
People go crazy for dressers and nightstands especially.

Socialize with neighbors and find out if there's something they need. I make $50 a month off of giving one neighbor space to park his work vehicle on my property since the city has a street parking ordinance in place because street parking fucks up the snow plows.

One time gigs too. City hall tends to have information on quick opportunities like that to make money if it isn't the city outright asking for it.

Know your area's services for those struggling as well. Local gov has been giving gas cards to people but it's one of those situations where you have to ask directly, there isn't any signage and it's by word of mouth.

Unclaimed properties as well. Search your name, your family's names, deceased relatives. See what you can find.

My biggest advice for people who are struggling is to go places and talk to the people. Digital communications take away the human element and sometimes just showing up somewhere can net you something good.

Also, I hate reddit but r/beermoney is pretty solid for fast ways to make money. That's where I learned about qmee.

 

[Blobby's Murder Knife]

An Instant Pot, a decent set of knives, and cast iron skillet and Dutch oven will be some of the best kitchen investments you will ever make and will save you so much money in the long run, it is not funny. It just kills me how many people I have known who have ate themselves into debt by refusing to cook and insisting on every meal out. I knew someone in college where that was where most of their student loans were actually going, no shit.

I'd also suggest learning something about how to maintain and fix cars if you absolutely have to have them. YT is invaluable in this way as there are countless tutorial videos on almost any car repair subject and yes, for your make and model. Haynes or Chilton manual is also a great investment along with joining a forum for your make if that exists. Buy a starter set of tools appropriate for your vehicle used on FB marketplace or Craigslist. Always keep up with regular maintenance like oil changes and do them yourself. Stay away from stealerships if you can.

Buy literally everything you can second hand or see if you can get it for free (not grifting). I've gotten so many nice things and paid a pittance for them in my life it is not funny, just looking on Craigslist, seeing stuff on the side of the road, thrift stores, etc. Opportunity knocks constantly, but few people answer the door.

Don't pass up good opportunities or risks because you are scared of failure. Seen people stuck in dead end jobs for years because they were too scared to make the next step, not because they wanted to be there.

Always keep learning and never stop improving on yourself, regardless of if it leads to a high salary or not in the short run. You never know where your autism might end up being very useful and lucrative. I've seen this happen time and time again, regardless if someone went to college or not (generally don't past community college, I would say 95% of the time).

Always look into what gibs might be available knowing full well you have absolutely no intention of being a poorfag on them forever. You are the exact person they are trying to target with them - handup not a handout. I don't give a shit if my tax dollars go to people actually trying to improve their situation instead of wallowing in it. Bad things happen to good people all the time, I have some empathy for it.

Always get a second opinion if you need expensive work done, be it automotive or medical or whatever. May turn out first guy was going to rip you off...massively. A penny saved is a penny earned, though I realize it will suck if you have to pay a second guy.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

Awesome new thread! Thanks @Owls Owls Owls for tagging me in. I'm glad I could help!

A good site for cheap(ish) meals that are delicious and easy is Budget Bytes. The recipes have prices for ingredients, but they are 1: in USD and 2: local to the author. The prices in my area sometimes don't even come close. You can easily modify the recipes by leaving out more expensive ingredients or changing the source of the ingredients.

One of her recipes is a very simple cherry tomato/pasta/basil dish topped with cheese. There might be a couple more ingredients. You slice the cherry tomatoes, cook them a bit in a little oil, add the basil, and toss them over pasta. The tomatoes as they cook put out a lot of liquid and it makes a very subtle sauce that's just chefs kiss.

However cherrytomatoes are expensive. Like $4 usd here for the amount used. I use one can of canned petite diced tomatoes with the juice instead. I can buy olive oil/garlic diced tomatoes here for about the same price as plain, which is what I usually use, but any canned tomatoes will work. I also leave out the cheese most of the time, because it's expensive too. It is delicious both with it and without it.

This next practice does take a little bit of extra money and time, but it saves both in the long run. Buy ahead of your needs. When you buy something that you use frequently, buy two. When one runs out, buy another one. Start slow by buying one or two extra things every shopping trip until you've either run out of room or run out of things to buy extras of.

Having a stockpile of shelf stable foods is also good for making lazy meals. Take a can of soup (I like tomato, but cream of whatever works well too, as does bouillon broth), add pasta, cans of vegetables, leftovers, whatever - easy hearty meal. Depending on what ingredients you use it's also low calorie, which means you can eat a whole lot!

If you're fat, lose weight. You'll save money in food: frozen and canned veggies, eggs, beans, breads, potatoes, pastas, and rice are all cheap and healthy. I don't eat a lot of carbs because vegetables are more filling overall, you can eat so much more at once for the same amount of calories. Eggs have gone up a lot around here, but are still a cheap source of protein. I don't do much dairy or meat because it can get super expensive fast.

Get an air fryer. Most foods cooked in the oven cam be cooked in an air fryer without heating up your home, which helps save on electricity. I use mine mostly to cook vegetables. A pound of frozen veggies, a little oil for satiety, some salt. 17-18 minutes at 375F and holy shit. I've eaten two rounds of veggies cooked like this in one meal more than once. Canned potatoes are really good cooked this way! Both whole and sliced. This is the only way I'll eat canned potatoes.

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

Answer weird Craigslist ads. A guy once paid me $150 to wear a bear costume and present his art show because he was too socially awkward to be there himself.
Sign up for university studies, they’re usually pitiful $3-5 Amazon gift cards but they’ll add up and they’re easy, plus you get to see and later make fun of really weird zoomers.
Walk past a bro bar just past closing time, they drop money or phones you can sell,

 

[Blobby's Murder Knife]

Buy sometimes massively discounted giftcards to your fav stores here.
Doctor of Credit - Often posts discounts and deals and sometimes cool free things. You'll learn how to stack deals and build your credit.
Slickdeals.net - Needs no real explanation. Very helpful.
If you want to be not poor, learn what the not poor do here at the Boglehead's forum. Don't be frustrated, just shut up and listen and learn and ask questions.

 

[veeeeeeeee]

 

[Aunt Carol]

If you need durable medical equipment, check used first. It will vary by your need and by your insurance, but the out-of-pocket cost for a used walker is often cheaper than the copay for a new one.

Look at chain thrift stores, craigslist/Marketplace etc. (You might be lucky enough to have an explicit medical device restoration and reuse charity nearby, but they're rare enough that I'd be doxing myself).

I've peed in the toilet of a thousand butts at the airport or the grocery store, so I'd be completely fine with deep-cleaning a second-hand bedside commode, but of course this is a personal philosophy. If you've been using a bedside commode at the hospital, be advised that that's also been used by quite a few people before you/your loved one.

When an elderly or chronically-ill person dies, the person dealing with their estate is often overwhelmed and just wants to get everything gone. They're not just dealing with commodes and pressure-relieving mattress covers, after all; they have a funeral to plan and are just starting to feel the void in their life where they're no longer pouring their caregiving.

Sometimes this means a bulk donation to St. Vincent's, and sometimes it means a bone-tired "just make me an offer" post on craigslist. Social skills can help you a lot in this second situation.


Do be cautious about second-hand wheelchairs. If you have enough experience to tell a good fit, that's no problem, or if you're just using a wheelchair as a transport chair for errands. If this is a chair that a person is going to be in all day, and especially if they have limited sensation/movement, it's like wearing a pair of shoes that don't quite fit on a hike.

Spoiler: on the false economy of poorly-fitted power chairs, slightly gross

Met a guy whose medical team didn't recommend it, but darn it, he wanted a power chair. He didn't have munchie motives for this. He was just a dude with a disability check who wanted to live in squalor in style and do meth with his friends paid caregivers, all on the government dime.

So he shopped around and bought a used power chair that was slightly too narrow for him, and once he sat down it it and started using it to go everywhere, he walked and transferred less and less. Until he could no longer walk at all, and he was spending all his time in the power chair other than when his caretweakers got it together to help him to the commode, which was not as often as you'd hope.

So he stayed in the same position longer and longer, in the slightly-too-narrow chair, putting pressure on his bony prominences. When he next came to the hospital, he had muscle atrophy and contractures in his legs, unstageable pressure injuries to his hips and coccyx, and the pressure-relieving seat cushion in the power chair was full of live and dead maggots that had fallen out of his wounds.

edit: aw, I was trying to be helpful, not horrifying

 

[Fetish Roulette]

Sign up for university studies, they’re usually pitiful $3-5 Amazon gift cards but they’ll add up and they’re easy, plus you get to see and later make fun of really weird zoomers.

Second on the university studies, as long as you do some basic filtering of your options. I once performed one that paid me $100+ for maybe 3 to 5 hours of work split up over a couple of months.

To add onto this, consider finding a place in your area where you can donate plasma. There are going to be diminishing returns, but some of the signup bonuses they offer are obscene.

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

Second on the university studies, as long as you do some basic filtering of your options. I once performed one that paid me $100+ for maybe 3 to 5 hours of work split up over a couple of months.

To add onto this, consider finding a place in your area where you can donate plasma. There are going to be diminishing returns, but some of the signup bonuses they offer are obscene.

The ones I do are usually a weird hybrid of irl and remote. The remote ones pay very little but it’s only ten minutes. I typically choose to do them from a nice outdoors location as I concentrate better out there.

 

[Fialovy]

If you have the tism (which I am sure a lot of people here do if you are on this site) and want fun money, consider participating in research studies. The organization AANE keeps a list of them updated regularly and many of them offer compensation in Amazon gift cards just by filling out surveys or doing interviews. It is nice if you are broke, but want to have a way to buy fun stuff.

Also, Arthur is right. Having fun isn't hard when you got a library card. Seriously, your local public library is not obsolete. The past decade and especially during covid, many public libraries have really ramped up their online offerings. Many of them have free access to streaming services, ebooks and audio books, free language courses and stuff all at the comfort of your home for the price of nothing, you just have to live in the district and it is easy to sign up, just show proof of address and fill out some forms.

Some libraries even let you rent other things like tools and whatnot. It is worth checking out.

 

[Banana Cat]

Chicken and vegetable tikka masala

Ingredients:
1 table spoon of olive oil
3 pieces of chicken thighs
1 cup of frozen vegetables (peas, cauliflower and carrot)
1 jar of tikka masala sauce (Damn you US kiwis it's so cheap over there)
1 cup of rice
If your not absolutely poverty stricken-
2 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
Some chilli flakes
Garlic and herb naan bread

Method:
Dice up your chicken thighs (I like to let them marinate in a bit of the masala sauce and a few tablespoons of Greek yoghurt mixed for about 20 minutes but this step is totally optional)

Start your rice

Heat up the oil in your pan and brown the chicken

Add your sauce and bring to a simmer (I like to add in some chilli flakes here)

Add your frozen vegetables and simmer for 5 minutes

Serve over your rice

 

[Rabbit Bones]

Get a can of beans. Pinto beans are best but I've done it with black and kidneys too. Get some garlic, seasonings, and some kind of fat if you have it. Bacon fat is great. Get some tortillas and cheese (or just eat the refried beans on their own if you're really on the strugglebus lol) Plop some fat in skillet over medium heat. Throw in a few cloves of garlic. Fry the garlic till it's browned and soft. Dump in the can of beans with juices. I add cumin, garlic and onion powder, pepper and MSG. Smash them up with a potato masher. Drop the heat and let them simmer till they're fairly thick, about 15 minuets. Cover half your tortilla with beans, top with a little cheese, and fold it in half. I toast mine in a hot, dry skillet on both sides till they're a little burnt. Salsa is a good addition if you have it. I can make about six quesadillas with one can... three is a full meal for me.

Tortillas are cheap at the store, but they're even cheaper to make. You can get a 5 pound bag of masa at Walmart for like $5. If you don't have a tortilla press and you're too lazy to jerryrig one, just make pupusas. Mix a little salt, masa and water till you have something with a play-do consistency. Look a video up on YouTube for how to form them, because it can be fiddly and take practice, but ultimately isn't difficult. You basically just make a cup of dough in your hand, fill it, and pinch the top shut, before working it flat in your hand (keep your hands damp, it helps them from sticking to the dough). You pan fry them in a little oil on both sides till they're golden. I've filled these with beans, cheese, meat, rice, basically whatever. I make them any time I have leftover stewed meats. Pot roast in these slaps, as does pulled pork. A little filling goes a super long way, so they're good if you don't have enough leftovers for a full meal, or to feed multiple people.

Southern style beans are always easy. A bag of beans cost a few bucks. A ham bone is best, but they're sort of pricey these days. Ham hocks, chicken feet, smoked turkey necks/wings are all pretty cheap, and add a ton of flavor. I've made these with no meat/bones and just used a tablespoon or two of bacon fat and they were good as well. I make mine with onions, garlic, bay leaves and salt and pepper. If you have stock/stock cubes cool, but they taste fine if you just use water. I cook mine in a slow cooker so I don't have to soak them. Jiffy cornbread is cheap (If you don't have or can't afford milk/eggs, use cottage cheese) and tastes great with these. You can even use the leftovers to make refried beans!

Always get a rotisserie chicken when they have them at the store. It's cheaper than a raw one at this point. Keep the carcasses in your freezer with your veggie scraps till you have enough to fill up a slow cooker, and you can make your own stock.

If you have a dutch oven, dutch oven bread is amazing. Take 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups warm water, half a teaspoon of yeast, and a little sugar and salt. Throw it all in a bowl and mix it up. You don't really need to knead it, just get it combined. Cover with plastic wrap and proof 1-2 hours. Put your dutch oven with lid into your oven and preheat it to 450. Take the dutch oven out and dump your dough ball into the middle, cover, and bake for half an hour. Take the lid off and bake another 5-10 minuets, till it's colored up. It makes a really fancy looking crusty loaf that's way cheaper than anything comparable at a grocery store would be. This is what I make instead of buying garlic bread... once it's baked I'll slice it and toast it, and cover it with butter mixed with confit garlic (or just garlic powder)

 

[Banana Cat]

Here's another recipe for y'all. It's not exactly the cheapest but it stretches a long way!

Stuffed zucchini boats (or I like to call it keto lasagne) you'll also get a second meal from this, spaghetti

Ingredients
250g beef mince
4 large zucchinis
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Tomato paste
1 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic chopped
Salt, pepper, Italian herbs to your taste
1 teaspoon of sugar
Shredded mozzarella
1 cup of your pasta of choice

Method
Slice your zucchinis down the side
Scoop out the middles of them and place that in a bowl

Preheat your oven to 180°c

In a pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add your onion and garlic and cook until the onion is transulce

Add your tomato paste and seasoning and a bit of water

In another pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown your mince, thrown in your zucchini guts and the sauce you just made. Simmer for 5

Add your mince and sauce into the zucchini boats and top with mozzarella

Put them into the oven and once the cheese is bubbly it's done

While that's cooking do your pasta and add your left over mince to your cooked pasta. You now have two meals, works great for lunch the next day

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

Seconding the library recommendation. You can even sometimes get cards from districts you don't live in. Some places have regional cards available for a small fee. You can check out music and movies, some have 3d printers and cricuts.

If you live in the US they participate in inter-library loan programs. You tell them what book you're looking for that they don't have, they find the book, you check it out for the standard time period. As long as you return it on time there's no cost to you. It's been decades since I used ILL but I think there's a way you can pay to offset the shipping costs, but it's voluntary.

Another option for cheap books is Kindle Unlimited. Personally this is the system I went with. It's less than $15 a month for all you can read. There are hundreds of thousands of books available through this program. Not a lot of NYT best sellers or mainstream authors you find at the local bookstore, mostly independent publishers. The books can be amazing, or crap. Most of the ones I read have a couple typos in them. Usually quotes that don't get closed properly. But I read at least one book a day and I'm fairly picky in what genres I read.

If you're a TV watcher I suggest you pick one streaming service. You can easily nickel and dime yourself to death with these, so pick one with a lot of your type of content. There are genre specific ones, ones that give you access to different cable TV channels, general purpose ones, etc. I don't recommend Apple TV, unless you can get it for free for a few months (usually by buying a new device). They don't have a whole lot of content yet.

 

[Slappy McGherkin]

Learn to eat the cheap cuts of meat. Whadda I mean? The stuff nobody else touches.

Beef tongue, chicken gizzards, chicken livers, pork "riblets" (rib tips). Eww gross? Not really. Beef tongue is cheap and you can boil it with onion and garlic, peel the outer skin, and have the finest tasting roast beef sammiches all week. I used to make gizzards and gravy, served over rice (also cheap as hell). Same goes with chicken livers. The riblets, like all pork ribs, are more bone than meat but they are generally dirt cheap compared to baby backs or spare ribs. A little BBQ sauce scrounged from McD's makes it even better.

You can't go wrong with tuna, either. Not sushi tuna, canned tuna. Add some celery, onion, mayo and again you've got good healthy sammiches on the cheap.

Back in the day, I used to pretty much live off a can of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, Spam, torillas, some eggs and the like for way cheap. Even today, I still follow all the sales and buy after the holidays when they're closing stuff out. Corned beef is the perfect example. After St. Patty's Day, Wal-Mart practically gives it away because there's zero demand for it. I'll pick up four or five 6-8 lb packages for like $5 to $6 each. Toss 'em in the freezer, break'em later when I'm in the mood.

You really can eat decent on the cheap.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Back when I was out on worker’s comp making 40% less and having nothing to do with my time I would check places like Craigslist for research studies.

I once got a free smartphone and paid like $500 for doing a six week study.