Unless you have a specific use case in mind, or have a particular distribution that interests you, I can wholeheartedly recommend Fedora (GNOME or KDE version, either is good). I've not had any issues with it for a few years (I think I had some trouble with it in 2022, but nothing since then).
When you're running so low on money, the increased energy costs are potentially more of an issue than the hardware costs. You can often find cheap or free hardware, but if it is inefficient and increases your energy bills then that's more money coming out every month.
That being said, I've seen some people have success with using old Android phones as small servers. Probably can't do much, and not the most secure (as they will no longer get security updates) but definitely a low power option that should be easy to get hold of for free or very cheap.
Yeah Lenovo hardware is pretty solid but the software support is awful, given android updates come through the manufacturer I wouldn't want to get another Lenovo Android tablet
It's nice to see the Tories beong called out when they lie. Unfortunately not many people read the Big Issue, so I worry the lie will spread further than the truth
Syncthing isn't hosting your own cloud, it is just syncing files between devices, there isn't a central file server.