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

[Android raptor]

I'm an autist who eats like a 10 year old, but adding some frozen shrimp&veggies to your ramen is an ok way to make it slightly less horrible for you.

Also it cheats you out of veggie scraps!
Veggie scraps + bones + water + time = collagen broth
Using the broth for soups is the obvious, but that shit can be stretched to become stew base, risotto, etc.

All my veggies scraps are bug food, and all produce that goes bad goes to them. Bugs are an excellent poorfag pet/hobby/autistic special interest/etc. They're just neat little guys.

Also the County health department sucks but it's better than nothing, it's how I get my meds and shit. If you need crazy pills or birth control or w/e and have no other options, try calling your county health department.

 

[mushuumail]

Cheap (weird?) meals

porcupine balls -
hamburger meat, rice, pasta sauce,
mix hamburger and rice, make into meatballs
put into oven safe pan
cover with pasta sauce
cook in oven til cooked

baloney stew -
potatoes, balone, tomato juice
cut small, throw in pot and cook til potatoes are done

i also eat a lot of rice with garlic butter or pasta with butter (or garlic butter) with Parmesan sprinkle cheese

not always the tastiest but you got to do what you got to do

 

[CharcoalChkn]

Going to prop up the post about eating off cuts/meat that others feel they are too good for.

A lot of great dishes are created using offal and they are generally very good for you.

I sometimes mix in some chicken hearts with my chicken breast to get some extra iron into myself it's supppper cheap and really does not have much of a taste at all, just make sure you rinse them prior to cooking.

I usually steam things to get rid of the excess fat but it's really easy to dress them up and cook them nicely if you want to disguise you are eating hearts.

 

[Old English Roast Beef]

CreditKarma will also let you file for free.

I wouldn't recommend CreditKarma. A lot of "free" sites work by either putting on conditions (like how TurboTax would charge you midway through), upselling you other products, or using your tax return data for commercial purposes. If they're in the IRS FreeFile program they aren't allowed to do that.

 

[NoReturn]

More ideas from other threads I've been looking at:

• A gym membership is almost always worth it. (Happy to elaborate if anyone wants.)
• Online savings accounts are... ok.
• Credit Unions are pretty rad, but some of them are unreliable or have shitty systems. Choose carefully.

I wouldn't recommend CreditKarma. A lot of "free" sites work by either putting on conditions (like how TurboTax would charge you midway through), upselling you other products, or using your tax return data for commercial purposes. If they're in the IRS FreeFile program they aren't allowed to do that.

I brought them up only because they have had a decent history and track record, but in general yeah I agree with you, and there are easier alternatives. It's more of a "If you're going to use one, use these guys" situation.

 

[BelUwUga]

Torrent everything, fuck streaming services. Seriously, learn how to torrent safely and you will have everything you ever want to watch. Start with The Pirate Bay (link changes every so often, nature of the beast.) Current Pirate Bay. I typically use IPTorrents which is behind a “doner” wall ($20) but it’s worth it every single penny I don’t spend of Netflix/hbo/hulu/whatever. Paid sites make it easier because you typically don’t have to sift through low quality but starting somewhere free is totally fine. Plus men are easily impressed when a woman can torrent her media, and if they aren’t or bitch about it theft laugh in their face. Lol, seriously, fuck streaming services.

Weboasis.app actively aggregates torrent links and other media services among (many, many) other things. Although as I pulled them up to get the link now and it looks like they are having an intermittent issue. Here's a link to a related discord that should track any splinters or major changes. Their UI is kinda polarizing, top-right hamburger menu will open a scrollable list. Iirc the left menu is settings and their forum stuff. There's also NSFW links and a couple other things on the left side.

I generally use them as a "index-of-indexes" in the sense that it doesn't collect many direct sources of content, instead cataloging archives, collections, and aggregation tools themselves. If you're looking for more esoteric/niche things it is a great starting place. As demonstration: ASINT Collection catalogs hundreds of doxing tools across a very large breadth and depth.

Spoiler: Why there's a discord for splinters.

Webby, the Null of WebOasis, unfortunately an-heroed almost a year ago. Unlike lolcows here he did so without extortion or blame, I found this out via an RIP note he added to the original weboas.is where he expressed his love and gratitude for the users. Even as troubled as he was, he proved himself as a based forum owner as he had paid out services to keep the site up long enough for things like the discord to be organized. The code was made freely available. What wasn't available and in all likelihood lost to time would be the forum user data. To the degree that I could not even make a forum account to view what they were like after learning it even had forums from the note. It's just a website but it was quite clearly a labor of love. If still makes me sad that someone that could make something like that could be hurting that badly.

 

[Barbarella]

From my poor days, I learned not to use credit. Figure out your budget, no matter how small it is, and on payday pay bills, get your extra cash, and put it in envelope. There is something about handling money that makes you think about it more, and it’s also satisfying to have some leftover to put in your savings envelope, even if it’s a dollar. Some people can do this without the actual cash, but some need to see it. If you are behind on bills, work with them, don’t ignore them. If it’s credit, pay from smallest to largest. If it’s rent and utilities, see what programs there are to tide you over but rent first, depending on where you are and who is with you, they may not be able to turn off heats and light. Find a second job to get you out of that situation, remembering it’s not forever.

Before you buy something, think twice. Wait a day. If you were meant to have it, it will still be there later, but lots of times the interest wears off and you don’t need it.

Here’s a trick for bartenders and those in the service industry who often deal with cash. (It’s getting rarer but it was common when I was bartending.). Buy a roll of dollar coins and give them out as change. After a few drinks, a lot of people think they are quarters and leave them as tips. The gold ones need the right lighting but those cheapskates who were going to leave you .50 cents just left you two bucks.

Totally reevaluate what you need. Depending on your situation, you may need to torrent to giving up your own wifi and using others. Buy clothes at thrift stores, marketplace and garage sales. Just make sure it’s washable and in good shape. Downsize car and living space.

Know what you can cheap out on and what you can’t. Dollar store soap is fine, their diapers are not.

I’ll leave the recipes to others, but beans and rice or ground beef with cans of tomatoes, both can be turned into many dishes. Make brownies rather than buying cookies-you can cut them smaller and it’s cheaper. (Obviously, don’t be fat.). Don’t eat out and don’t drink soda. Give yourself a think you crave when you save a certain amount.

I don’t think people need rice cookers and special fryers. Cooking rice in a pot is easy and an oven works for “air frying” (breading and baking) . But if you need those things, get them at thrift stores, ask for them for birthdays, etc.

If you have a lot of time, especially if there is a store with double coupons, you can save an amazing amount and get tons of stuff for free with coupons. But it takes time to learn the system, learn to read the barcodes, then plan and shop. It’s a full time job. I used to save 70-90% of my grocery bill, was an “extreme couponer” but it was soooo time consuming I gave it up when I became not poor. (Took me a while to feel ok about paying full price though.)

Remember, nothing lasts forever. Responsible people just do better than us airheads so try to find a system that works for your own brand of autism.

Make sure you educate yourself so you can get a better job and move up.

 

[The Emperor Skeksis]

If you're a man aged 20-35 and you're really desperate, medical trials will help you out - be a guinea pig, essentially. Find them online or in a city with a university/teaching hospital. In my country they pay a couple of hundred up to a couple of thousand euros. You're taking a risk, but that kind of money can help in a desperate situation or might even be the cash you need to crawl out of poverty forever. Most trials ask for men 20-35, but some will accept older people or women too. If you're a woman who still wants kids in the future you probably shouldn't do it, though.

Trustzone is a decent budget VPN. Not as secure as more expensive VPNs but fine for torrenting.

 

[𝕺𝖑' 𝕯𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝕱𝖆𝖙𝖘𝖔]

Oh this part for sure. Fixing up things is a critical life skill and a great way to have nice things.
Hell, you can do it with plants, too. If you can rehab something you find in a discount section or get for free, you can end up with something really beautiful with time.

I've known people who suffered for months with things barely working when the fix was literally tightening a few screws or giving it a hit of wd40. We really need to bring back shop and home ec classes because holy shit, knowing basic life skills does not detract from college prep nor is it sexist.

 

[Jack MeHoff]

My small contribution to this quite useful thread:

When I was in uni, we were all, of course, poor college kids. One trick I was taught was to put rice in a can of soup. It makes it more hearty, and easily makes 2 meals instead of one. That got us through some lean times.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

If you're a woman who still wants kids in the future you probably shouldn't do it, though.

In the US at least they won't let you do the riskier ones unless you're using contraception.

Highest-paying one I've ever seen was $8k/month, but it was checking drug interactions for chemo, so...godspeed.

 

[The Emperor Skeksis]

Highest-paying one I've ever seen was $8k/month, but it was checking drug interactions for chemo, so...godspeed.

That one is a real roll of the dice, oof. My friend made 2k in euro's doing a trial that lasted 10 days with something (at least theoretically) far less risky. Worst thing was that he was bored to tears because he had to stay in the hospital the whole time to be monitored. Good money, if you're really hard up.

 

[Hongourable Madisha]

University psychology departments will sometimes pay to experiment on you, and it's non-invasive stuff like having you answer a quiz or play with some puzzle toys or have some students act weird around you to see what you do. I used to make about £20 an hour doing that when I was a student, it wasn't regular work but it paid the rent a few times.

There's a foraging thread here, I wouldn't recommend living off wild/feral food if you don't know what you're doing, and it can be quite time intensive if you're doing things like leaching acorns etc, but it can supplement your diet. Easily identifiable things like blackberries, raspberries, apples, wild garlic and dandelions can be a nice extra with some cheap staple foods. I used to buy cheap frozen pizza and eat it with wild garlic and dandelions like a salad with stinging nettle pesto, and I'd make blackberry pies and crumbles for desserts. Stick to just a few species you can identify for certain when you start, and then you can learn more and add them to your list once you get good. It's a nice hobby and good way to get to know your neighbourhood too.
Fresh soft fruit is expensive in the shops, so it's nice to get it free, and you can freeze it or turn it into jam or juice too to preserve it outside its season (and turn it into fancy hipster gifts for people or to sell).
That thread also has some non-food uses for foraged things, like using horse chestnuts for detergent, and sticks to make charcoal.

Buying food in season helps save money too: it's always more expensive if the shop has to import it from somewhere instead of shifting a big local glut of it, and you can always freeze the excess.
Asian supermarkets often have baking ingredients, spices and seasonings for much cheaper than big supermarket chains.

Get to know your neighbours and if you have extra food going to waste, offer it to them and they'll do the same so you all save on food. Lend them tools and things and they'll lend you theirs so you won't have to buy a whole set each. On my street the council charges for garden bin collections but we only have small gardens, so we all chip in to buy one bin and all use it together. There's various things you can save on together like that.

 

[Fliddaroonie]

My small contribution to this quite useful thread:

When I was in uni, we were all, of course, poor college kids. One trick I was taught was to put rice in a can of soup. It makes it more hearty, and easily makes 2 meals instead of one. That got us through some lean times.

This or with cream of tomato, mix a tin of chopped tomatoes, and a carrot, little bit of red lentils or beans and half an onion (sautee the onion and carrot first).easy, cheap and very filling.

With pasta add in an egg yolk once the pasta is cooked. It's delicious

 

[Angel Dust]

Get a stale loaf of bread. Day+ olds can (almost) always be found on clearance for super cheap. I like getting crusty types of stale bread. (Baguette, french loaf etc). Sometimes these can be found at Walmart for .75 or even less. Just look around a bit.

1) make french toast with it. Mix some milk , eggs and vanilla, dip bread in it and fry bread until golden brown. Top with maple syrup or whatever you have. Kids especially seem to enjoy French toast for dinner. (Yes that's the world's most basic French toast recipe. Cinnamon/nutmeg are preferable add ins but not strictly necessary.) Serve fruit on the side, particularly any fruit you may have that's about to go off.

2) I'm fond of this poverty meal. It's a super dirty version of Thanksgiving stuffing. Cube your bread and cook it in some butter/margarine. You want cooked but not croutons here. Set aside and then cook up whatever the hell you have. Broccoli, carrots, onions, any vegetable really will work well. Add as much as you like. Toss in any leftover protein you may have. I like sausage myself. Mix the bread cubes back in. You may want to add some cooking stock if things seem too dry. Top with an egg if you're feeling inclined. Cheap, filling and fast. Makes good leftovers the next day as well.

 

[NoReturn]

I've known people who suffered for months with things barely working when the fix was literally tightening a few screws or giving it a hit of wd40. We really need to bring back shop and home ec classes because holy shit, knowing basic life skills does not detract from college prep nor is it sexist.

THE SMOKE DETECTORS.
I didn't know it was a thing until the dawn of voice chat in games, and more so once more people had the ability to film themselves in their homes, but so many people live with the constant "BIP!.........................BIP!................." of a smoke alarm's low-battery alert.
How? I don't understand.

 

[Potato Cat]

If you can't afford your medications, look for drug patient assistance programs (PAPs). These are programs run by the drug companies to provide free or low cost meds to patients that can't afford them.

If you're in the US, sign up for Research Match. You'll receive emails about legitimate research studies. Not all of them offer compensation, but it's easy money for those that do. Your name isn't released to any researcher unless you agree to participate. https://www.researchmatch.org/

Are you short on time, broke, but want to eat healthy? Make overnight oats and homemade cup of noodles. Ramen noodles are great if you skip the seasoning packet (lots of sodium). Rice noodles are also cheap. Add some frozen veggies, spices of your choice, chicken broth (or use a bullion cube) and whatever else you'd like.

Are you in a city with ethnic supermarkets? They are typically cheaper than regular supermarkets, and it's full of new food ideas. These stores also have low cost dishes, pots and pans. The ones in my area have loads of cheap, fresh fruits and veggies as well as fresh fish. It's the best place to buy spices.

Check out your local Dollar store. You can find a lot of your home staples like toothpaste and soap. It doesn't seem like much, but I can get brand name toothpaste for $1 that would cost $3 at a regular store. FYI, Dollar General is more expensive than Dollar Tree.

Do you like gardening? Look into propagating plants. There are many plants that can be grown from a cutting or broken leaf. R/proplifting on Reddit can help. You don't need anything fancy. In most cases they can grow in a cup of water in a windowsill. When the roots develop, transfer them to a cup with soil. I've seen people selling these plants on Facebook Marketplace for $5 to $10 each. Wander around Home Depot's gardening section and see what materials you find. You can also propagate leeks, garlic, pineapples, green onions and more.

My local library has a tool library, free 3D printers, free access to the streaming service, Kanopy, free access to digital comic books, and interlibrary loan. If I find a book that I like, I'll read it first from the library, then purchase the books that I love.

If you have an EBT card (food stamps) see what you can use it with in your area. My area lets EBT users buy $1 admission to the zoo, the various museums, botanical gardens and more. My state also doubles the value of fresh fruits and veggies for EBT users and you can shop at local farmers markets. If you budget for $20 of produce, you'll end up with $40 worth. https://doubleupamerica.org/

Are there universities in your area? Take note of when the move out dates are. The students end up throwing out loads of good stuff that you can pick up for free like TVs, DVD players, bikes, and more.

Are there dental schools near you? They will typically offer free or very low cost dental work including cleanings.

The app Freebie Alerts searches Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor, OfferUp and TrashNothing for free items.

Edit to add: there are pet pantries in many areas if you're struggling to feed your pet.

 

[Adrenochrome Dreams]

Growing your own vegetables ought to save money, but it often ends up being more expensive because you're told to buy all kinds of paraphernalia like compost, plant feed, slug protection etc. I still recommend it, especially for fellow PoorBongs because of upcoming food shortages and there not being enough land in our tiny country to feed our large population.

To make gardening cheaper:

• Use your own piss as plant feed. No need to buy. Dilute it before feeding, and it makes an ideal feed with lots of micro nutrients. Meat eaters should usually dilute it to 1/10, and vegans 1/3.
• Strip the copper from old electrical wires, and wrap it around plant stems to stop slugs and snails eating your grow. Make a closed circle around the mud of seedlings too small for a stem. I saw this tip on the TV recently, but can personally confirm that copper really works, and I will not be buying copper tape/netting anymore.
• If you live by the sea, fresh seaweed (not dried) is also a good slug deterrent, and fertilises the soil.
• Your own garden mud, in most cases, will be adequate for growing vegetables. You don't need compost. Depending on your soil type, you may need special composts for some crops (eg blueberries need acidic soil).
• Which brings me to my next point, grow veg that do well in your area. Eg, carrots do well in sandy soil, pumpkins do well in heavy rich soil and like hard water. Spinach doesn't like heat, okra needs a lot of heat.
• Making your own compost is easy, all you do is alternately layer "greens" which is fruit and veg waste and fresh garden waste, and "browns" which is sawdust, brown leaves, cardboard etc. You don't need a bin unless you have animals. Just pile in on the soil. Or you can bury it among your veg and let the worms eat it.

 

[Fliddaroonie]

Growing your own vegetables ought to save money, but it often ends up being more expensive because you're told to buy all kinds of paraphernalia like compost, plant feed, slug protection etc. I still recommend it, especially for fellow PoorBongs because of upcoming food shortages and there not being enough land in our tiny country to feed our large population.

To make gardening cheaper:

• Use your own piss as plant feed. No need to buy. Dilute it before feeding, and it makes an ideal feed with lots of micro nutrients. Meat eaters should usually dilute it to 1/10, and vegans 1/3.
• Strip the copper from old electrical wires, and wrap it around plant stems to stop slugs and snails eating your grow. Make a closed circle around the mud of seedlings too small for a stem. I saw this tip on the TV recently, but can personally confirm that copper really works, and I will not be buying copper tape/netting anymore.
• If you live by the sea, fresh seaweed (not dried) is also a good slug deterrent, and fertilises the soil.
• Your own garden mud, in most cases, will be adequate for growing vegetables. You don't need compost. Depending on your soil type, you may need special composts for some crops (eg blueberries need acidic soil).
• Which brings me to my next point, grow veg that do well in your area. Eg, carrots do well in sandy soil, pumpkins do well in heavy rich soil and like hard water. Spinach doesn't like heat, okra needs a lot of heat.
• Making your own compost is easy, all you do is alternately layer "greens" which is fruit and veg waste and fresh garden waste, and "browns" which is sawdust, brown leaves, cardboard etc. You don't need a bin unless you have animals. Just pile in on the soil. Or you can bury it among your veg and let the worms eat it.

Added to this: Starbucks bag up their grounds for people to take for free. Coffee grounds are excellent for fertiliser.

 

[Haint]

Kimchi and rice. It's can be cheap too. A little bit of kimchi on a bowl of rice goes a long way on you stomach. Most of not all the vitamins you need is in kimchi. Beats the hell out of beans which can boring real quick. Lived two years like that. Eat a light breakfast, a good lunch, a bowl of kimchi and rice for dinner.