£20 Bulking Diet

ok, im on a bulking regime and am wondering for just £20 a week, what can I get?

Now im a student, I work part time and earn about £50-£100 a week.

What items would you recommend in my budget, for snacks, meals etc. and where they are available?

Thanks

your find it hard on £20 mate , i eat 16 chicken breast a week that alone is £20 thats without tuna ,rice ,eggs ,steak ,sweet potato ,pro shakes,etc
not to get u down u may do it on £40 depending on your weight and how much food u need what your stats?

Im 163cm in height
and 68kg in weight

Read this, may be useful, written by one of our members theiopener:

http://www.muscletalk.co.uk/newsletter-0707.aspx

LOL, iceland, aldi or whatever. I don't really mind as long as the stuff is decent.

Interesting link redhotf. May implement some of the stuff their. Thanks

Ive never worked out exactly what i spend a week on food but im prety sure it wont be much more than £20. Tins of tuna for 55p at tesco, rice pudding 18p per tin, chicken legs 4 for £2.50, packs of boil your own rice £2.50 will last u a week, pasta, eggs, milk, nuts all very cheap sources of protein and carbohydrates. This game doesnt have to be as expensive as some people think!

Taztiddles


Get yourself to Iceland mate! Cheap as chips in there for all your meats like chicken/pork chops/mince etc.

iv tryed iceland the meat taste like dog food to me dont really like frozen stuff , morrisons is the cheapest for meat i find i must say i buy in bulk which is far cheaper like 10kg of rice £9.50 also i get my eggs off a farmer 24 for £1.50 i normaly buy over 100 and get them a little cheaper still. also your meat should have as less fat as possable i cant icelands meat would be .

You can get a lot for £20 quid if you shop right. Particulary if you not a big chap to begin with. Just need to be organised with your meals and keep it basic.

Bigjacak has made some good suggestions, ie buy in  bulk, kcal dense food making sure to get fruit and veg in

i would say its going to be near impossible to eat a balanced healthy diet, which includes enough protein in it for bulking for 20 a week.  just to get your fruit and veg for the week is going to use half of that.  even if you only needed 150g protein a day, then your still going to struggle to buy that, even using the cheapest mince you can get, it will still leave you short for other things, a few quid a week is going to have to go on carbs.  and your still short on efa's, so some needs to go on oils.

for 20 quid a week, no way. double it and you might be in with a chance

dazc


i would say its going to be near impossible to eat a balanced healthy diet, which includes enough protein in it for bulking for 20 a week.  just to get your fruit and veg for the week is going to use half of that.  even if you only needed 150g protein a day, then your still going to struggle to buy that, even using the cheapest mince you can get, it will still leave you short for other things, a few quid a week is going to have to go on carbs.  and your still short on efa's, so some needs to go on oils.

for 20 quid a week, no way. double it and you might be in with a chance

Your talking from a competative bodybuilder point of view, this guy isnt from what hes posted. I bulked up without buying efa's oils. Imo its doable

bigjack



Your talking from a competative bodybuilder point of view, this guy isnt from what hes posted. I bulked up without buying efa's oils. Imo its doable

possibly im out of touch with what normal people eat mate, im not sure.  But when i think through in my head, just to get the sort of fruit and veg amounts needed is going to come to a tenner a week imo! then say 200g chicken a day which isnt even 50g protein, even at a cheapo £6 per KG its still £9 per week!  add a £1 a week for rice or pasta, and maybe same for some milk, and we are over 20 quid! 
 
then most people will want at lease some sauce or flavouring, maybe a treat meal once a week, or a takeaway. 
 
honestly, everything in, i just cant see that even a normal person with no aspirations of gaining weigth, who is eating a varied, balanced, interesting diet can do it for £20 a week!

Dazc; the OP is 68kg. He may very well grow on 2500kcals. Why on earth dose he need 200g of chicken a day? Plus he may not care if it's not interesting or have a sauce. Varitey is overated. If he varies veg and meat over the weeks no probs.
 
Now I do think £20 is tough going indeed, but double it?
But I am curous so will try and figure out a shopping list;

1kg oats- £1 (less probably)
Skimmed milk powder 500g- £1.50
Cheap supermarket weetabix- £1
1kg Mince- £5
Rice- £1
Cheese 400g- £3
Olive oil- £2
That's a total of approx £15 so far. Then spend £5 on fruit and veg (get some cheap frozen stuff).

You could make up a 1kcal smoothy every day with the oats, milk powder, oil and banana. That's a good % of what the OP needs right there.

Now that's off the top of my head. I am sure others can make even more savings.

Again £20 seems tough going but getting close is def doable for a lighter gentlemen.

why the chicken?  well even somone light is going to need decent protein, after all im presuming he wants to do more than get fat. But sure, could go with cheap mince and save a quid or two.  so even if we base it on just 100g protein per day (my girlfriend who weights 54kg needs more than that)

so just meeting that requirement is going to eat up alot of the budget!

i refuse to believe that there is anyone other than those precomp, especially a student that wont eat a takeaway or something maybe once a week.  so that is going to be at least 4-5 quid right there.

the op mentions snacks as well.

he could live well on just breakfast of oats and milk, beans on toast for lunch, and a reasonable tea, but its not a bulking diet is it

i agree with daz,as i said start of thread no chance on £20 i was 160lb when i started bulking and i was eating near on 3000 cals aday and that was 2 chicken breasts ,tuna,steak,rice,eggs ect and i was spending around £40 .clean bulk u need good food.

dannyboy84


i agree with daz,as i said start of thread no chance on £20 i was 160lb when i started bulking and i was eating near on 3000 cals aday and that was 2 chicken breasts ,tuna,steak,rice,eggs ect and i was spending around £40 .clean bulk u need good food.

thats unlucky mate im 18stone at present and eat 6-8 meals a day and dont spend £40 a week! maybe try the value section

Going back to the ops question i think its doable still. You forget that bulking up is about high protein, high cals but that doesnt mean expense. Say he had 4 tins of tuna a day thats £2, a couple of bags of nuts at 60p a pop, rice pudding 18p per tin, pasta is dirt cheap like £3 for 5 kilos! rice again a weeks worth costs £2.50ish. the most expensive thing will be chicken or lean beef mince. it is doable or near on guys

4 tins of tuna a day?  so £14 a week on tuna.  couple of bags of nuts a day thats another £8.40 

errrr can you see the problem with your food suggestions??  lol

dazc


4 tins of tuna a day?  so £14 a week on tuna.  couple of bags of nuts a day thats another £8.40 

errrr can you see the problem with your food suggestions??  lol

lol fair enough . TAXI

lmao!   has been an interesting thread though! i like stuff like this!

i wish i could shop for 20 quid a week! no matter how i work it, my food comes to over 110 a week

I don't think it's possible. Even if you made what in my opinion would be the wrong decision to omit fruit and veg entirely, you'll still struggle:

30 tins of tuna per week = 15 quid
bag of oats - 1 quid
enough rice for a week - say 3 quid
enough milk to cover your oats each day - 1 or 2 quid

Nobody would survive eating quite literally the same 4 foods every single day, and as people have mentioned he'll want a takeaway or whatever at least once a week.

That's not to say you can't do it with a manageable diet for say £30 quid a week. You'd still have to be very shrewd about it and probably wouldn't be able to afford too much fruit or veg, but it would allow you to change it a little to include some chicken/turkey, some nuts and some eggs for the morning with a little left over for some cheaper fruit/veg.

If you're earning 50-100 (and presumably have money from a student loan/bursary etc. also?) I see no reason to restrict yourself to 20 quid. I live with 3 people who don't work out and have no interest in changing their physiques and all of them spend more than £20 on food every week.