I also don’t really have the means to pay for private services so here’s what I use: Proton mail and VPN - the mail is my secondary account, the free VPN works so well I don’t see myself ever needing to pay. Brave search - duckduckgo is usually the first name mentioned but personally I can’t get past the silly name. I’ve tried Neeva but didn’t love it and it’s going away, and Qwant, but the results aren’t great. Brave browser is good too.