There's always this...
I used to rely on the boiling method as a poor teenager, no pans ruined!
It gave enough zing to get me through a gig but with the amount of noise we used to make back then it probably didn't make a lot of difference.
I think it's worth spending extra on some high quality strings, they generally last a lot longer. I've used DRs for years and I usually get 6 months out of them.