Bodybuilding diet on a budget of £30 / week at university?

[jwardmagic]

I'm off to university next year and am doing some advanced prep so I dont go and realise I don't have money to do anything!

I'm really wondering how I can maintain a bodybuilding/maintenance/possibly bulk (a small amount) diet whilst on a budget of no more than £20 a week? My supplements are a multi, whey (possibly creatine as this comes as a package with the whey for a cheaper deal), probiotic + saccaromyces boulardi (for personal health reasons).

Anyone got any suggestions for a diet adequate for the gym (3x a week - possibly HST or a full body workout to save time and money) spending no more than £30 a week?

[brendan0076]

when I was in university I just ate the poverty foods - rice, pasta, baked beans

supplemented with tuna + whey for protein

you will get sick of it fast tho and it gets depressing, find a way to make more money is my best advice

[XierLong]

I suggest you read my thread. I bought 121 lbs of bean and seed powder for $100. I am going to bulk like a mf for the next two months. I guess that puts me at like $12.50 a week and over 5000 calories a day!

[germaine07]

I suggest you read my thread. I bought 121 lbs of bean and seed powder for $100. I am going to bulk like a mf for the next two months. I guess that puts me at like $12.50 a week and over 5000 calories a day!

What a dumb diet. Why not just eat like a rational person?

[Notevenlegs]

Can't you stay at home? Leaves a lot more leeway in budget

[DatTrolololsong]

You sound like you from london

[pretend]

At about $6.60/day, that's pretty tough. It does depend a bit on your TDEE too. Things you can buy in bulk will get you the best deal: rice, dry pasta, oats, dry beans. Ground beef is fairly cheap here, but the last pack I bought was still ~$4/lb.

What you really need to do is take a pen and paper with you to your grocery store, and write down: price per unit, calories, protein, carbs, fat content, and serving size. Then you can calculate the total macro content and price per gram of a wide range of foods. For things that don't have nutritional info, just look that stuff up when you get home.

I would also recommend including your whey in the calculations to make sure it's cost-effective vs other protein sources.

It'd also make it MUCH easier on yourself if you could find a bit of extra income. If you're good at any particular subjects, it shouldn't be hard to find some work as a tutor. As an engineering student, parents were quite happy to pay me $20/hr to help their high school kids in math and physics. 2 hours of that per week basically doubles your food budget...

[Jake123456]

At about $6.60/day, that's pretty tough. It does depend a bit on your TDEE too. Things you can buy in bulk will get you the best deal: rice, dry pasta, oats, dry beans. Ground beef is fairly cheap here, but the last pack I bought was still ~$4/lb.

What you really need to do is take a pen and paper with you to your grocery store, and write down: price per unit, calories, protein, carbs, fat content, and serving size. Then you can calculate the total macro content and price per gram of a wide range of foods. For things that don't have nutritional info, just look that stuff up when you get home.

I would also recommend including your whey in the calculations to make sure it's cost-effective vs other protein sources.

It'd also make it MUCH easier on yourself if you could find a bit of extra income. If you're good at any particular subjects, it shouldn't be hard to find some work as a tutor. As an engineering student, parents were quite happy to pay me $20/hr to help their high school kids in math and physics. 2 hours of that per week basically doubles your food budget...

Summed up perfectly.

[Obscene]

4kg frozen chicken £18? Then blow the rest on oats/broccoli whatever is cheap in bulk.

[germaine07]

You've got £120 a month, which is about the equivalent of ~150euros. You could easily go out and bulk buy a months supply of food at a time.

- Protein Pack from Butchers
- Tub of Whey
- Milk
- Oats
- Pasta
- Rice
- Bread
- PB
- EVOO

[Weishman]

Of course you can,

4kg Chicken Breast
3 Packs Wholegrain Pasta
4 Packs of Frozen Veg
2kg Sweet Potato
1kg Bag of Oats
4 Cans Tuna
1 Tub Peanut Butter

= 29.96 of Her Majesty's Sterling.

That's from Sainsburys (if you are in the UK)

[xsmith85x]

4kg frozen chicken £18? Then blow the rest on oats/broccoli whatever is cheap in bulk.

Think out side the box, well I know this wont apply for every one but I get fresh skinless / boneless breasts through my brother who works in a restaurant for £1.10 per kg ( got to buy 10kg boxes ).

Guess all I'm saying is make friends with a chef or convenience store owner they get stuff for a fraction of the cost.

[Xcubed]

I suggest here go for brown rice or any rice, a pack will last you probably a month. Same goes with porridge (quaker oats) and stuff like that. All of that will be cheap from sainsburys or tesco or asda. Where as for protein source. Well.. if you are bulking I suggest plenty of eggs (you can buy a batch of like 20-30 (cant remember exactly) from asda from next to nothing, yes they are not free range but who cares), milk (a lot of milk, very cheap, great for bulking), minced lean beef... You can get chicken from sainsburys 3 packs of breasts for £10.. Or you can mix and match that with salmon and beef. (Mix and match any 3)
Would also suggest peanut butter and cheap olive oil, those will last you for a month as well. Cereals and things like that will last you for a long time, so buy those in big batches and save the rest for meats and protein sources (cheapest of which will be eggs and milk for you). Trust me, £30 a week is doable.

PS Studied in York for 3 years, now in Manchester doing Master degree

[vilgaxer5]

I'm off to university next year and am doing some advanced prep so I dont go and realise I don't have money to do anything!

I'm really wondering how I can maintain a bodybuilding/maintenance/possibly bulk (a small amount) diet whilst on a budget of no more than £20 a week? My supplements are a multi, whey (possibly creatine as this comes as a package with the whey for a cheaper deal), probiotic + saccaromyces boulardi (for personal health reasons).

Anyone got any suggestions for a diet adequate for the gym (3x a week - possibly HST or a full body workout to save time and money) spending no more than £30 a week?

I'm starting uni this year. I'm on a gap year now and have been doing a lot of preparation to ensure I can continue to bulk as I'm doing now, and I think it can be done for £30 a week. I'm preparing for a competition next and will do whatever it takes to ensure I diet properly. Buy from lidl if there is one near you, they are really good value. If not I'm sure you can still buy cheap stuff from the other big supermarkets.

This is a monthly shopping list I have put together. Its not quite finished and I need to add more to it but I think it covers most of the essential things. It comes to £87.1 a month so far which is £21.8 per week.

• 4 x 500g oats @ £0.39 per packet = £1.56
• 4 x 454g peanut butter @ £1.29 per jar = £5.29
• 5kg Bananas @ £0.68/kg = £3.40
• 4 x 250g bacon @ £1.35 per pack = £5.40
• 20 x Tomato & Onion pasta packets @ £0.49 each = £9.80
• 20 x 130g Tuna can @ £0.75 each = £15.00
• 5kg frozen chicken breast @£3.99/kg = £19.95
• 4 x 20 egg crate @ £3 = £12
• 2 x 1kg low fat greek yoghurt @ £1.58 = £3.16
• 2 x 750g mixed frozen berries @ £1.79 = £3.58
• 4 x 1 loaf best of both bread @ £0.99 = £3.96
• 8 x 4pint bottles semi-skimmed milk @ £1 = £4

I still need to add sweetcorn (~£3), Rice (~£6), other fruit (~£5), Nuts (~£5), Potatoes ~£5. Even this would only come to ~£111/month or £27.78/week.
Bear in mind that I'm buying flavoured pasta and rice packets as they are just really convenient. If you really wanted to, you could just buy plain pasta and rice to save a bit of monies.

Following my current diet, this list should give you about 3400cals a day. However 600cals come from a mass shake. Now obviously you still need to account for supplements. You could get 5kg impact whey from myprotein for £55 which lasts 2 months, so thats £27.5 per month and 2x300g creatine from discount supplements for £15 which should also last about 2 months. That's only £35 a month for both.(£8.75 per week).
I'm spending roughly £80/month (£20/week) on supps at the moment, which is probably more than most people but I'm working so can afford it. I can cut my pre-workout for uni though to save some money. I can only recommend getting a part time job or saving up a lot of money to buy supplements in advance.

Body-building is not a cheap lifestyle, and everyone knows that, but I think it can be done whilst at uni.

Check out my website if you happen to give a **** : https:// sites(dot)google(dot)com/site/zimbogains/
or just Google zimbogains

[ConnorMaynard]

I'm starting uni this year. I'm on a gap year now and have been doing a lot of preparation to ensure I can continue to bulk as I'm doing now, and I think it can be done for £30 a week. I'm preparing for a competition next and will do whatever it takes to ensure I diet properly. Buy from lidl if there is one near you, they are really good value. If not I'm sure you can still buy cheap stuff from the other big supermarkets.

This is a monthly shopping list I have put together. Its not quite finished and I need to add more to it but I think it covers most of the essential things. It comes to £87.1 a month so far which is £21.8 per week.

• 4 x 500g oats @ £0.39 per packet = £1.56
• 4 x 454g peanut butter @ £1.29 per jar = £5.29
• 5kg Bananas @ £0.68/kg = £3.40
• 4 x 250g bacon @ £1.35 per pack = £5.40
• 20 x Tomato & Onion pasta packets @ £0.49 each = £9.80
• 20 x 130g Tuna can @ £0.75 each = £15.00
• 5kg frozen chicken breast @£3.99/kg = £19.95
• 4 x 20 egg crate @ £3 = £12
• 2 x 1kg low fat greek yoghurt @ £1.58 = £3.16
• 2 x 750g mixed frozen berries @ £1.79 = £3.58
• 4 x 1 loaf best of both bread @ £0.99 = £3.96
• 8 x 4pint bottles semi-skimmed milk @ £1 = £4

I still need to add sweetcorn (~£3), Rice (~£6), other fruit (~£5), Nuts (~£5), Potatoes ~£5. Even this would only come to ~£111/month or £27.78/week.
Bear in mind that I'm buying flavoured pasta and rice packets as they are just really convenient. If you really wanted to, you could just buy plain pasta and rice to save a bit of monies.

Following my current diet, this list should give you about 3400cals a day. However 600cals come from a mass shake. Now obviously you still need to account for supplements. You could get 5kg impact whey from myprotein for £55 which lasts 2 months, so thats £27.5 per month and 2x300g creatine from discount supplements for £15 which should also last about 2 months. That's only £35 a month for both.(£8.75 per week).
I'm spending roughly £80/month (£20/week) on supps at the moment, which is probably more than most people but I'm working so can afford it. I can cut my pre-workout for uni though to save some money. I can only recommend getting a part time job or saving up a lot of money to buy supplements in advance.

Body-building is not a cheap lifestyle, and everyone knows that, but I think it can be done whilst at uni.

Check out my website if you happen to give a **** : https:// sites(dot)google(dot)com/site/zimbogains/
or just Google zimbogains

strong post