Building Muscle On A Budget

a shake with oats + whey protein + peanut butter is about the cheapest you could get dude. Takes 5 mins to make and drink. Put some cinamon, stevia and tiny bit of salt, taste pretty good. I make one with like 1200 cals. 

I eat about two chicken thighs a day plus two medium to large size potatoes. With a hefty amount of ranch. I may have a beer or so later that night as I ravage the countryside in search of prey. 

I relate to this because bulking ain't easy when you're a student.

Good combination for low budget:

Some cheap protein powder, kale (cheap and nutritious), tons of eggs, brown rice, potatoes, meat directly from farmers (best option if you can't go organic and grassfed),

curd (try 250g of curd, one banana, cinnamon and add water so it gets the right consistency, cheap, nutritious and lots of protein), cottage cheese (don't like it personally but it's a great calorie and protein-source). Just eat tons of rice and potatoes to get your calories up.

Protein from Dairy generally is cheaper than meat, although healthwise not as good. But calorie-wise it's way cheaper and organic dairy compared to regular dairy isn't that big of a difference.

Also be sure to consume a hell a lot of butter. Saturated Fats are great for building muscle. Mix it in your coffee if you can stand it or else just let it melt over your food.

One meal I eat 3 times a week or so:

Melt lots of butter in a pan. Add onions and garlic. After 1 or 2 minutes add chopped kale. Crack the eggs and stir a bit. If you're into cheese then put lots of cheese in there. Tastes amazing, simple and cheap.

Another good one:

Simmer some brown rice. When it's done add carrots, zucchini or some other veggies and pour tomato sauce in (cheap as fuck and pretty good). Spices: Oregano, Basil, Parmesan Cheese ...

Hope that helps.

I still think you should probably be beasting harder in the gym. I can't imagine you hitting it up that hard dude. LOL 

Why do you think that? Can you post a chest/shoulder routine and I'll post what I do to follow up to see if I'm not hitting it hard enough or need to add more weight or something.

So a couple thighs per day, couple potatos, then extra stuff thrown in like coffee or oats, cereal, happy hour goodies, etc. that's good. Are the potatoes those large russet ones or more medium size taters?

I put on a lot of muscle since the winter. I would eat six times a day. 3 meals with as much meat and veggies I could shove in me along with some potatoes/fruit/nuts/seeds/rice. In between snacks were whey shakes with 40-60 grams of protein and veggies, fruit, oats and nuts. Blended together or eaten seperately. Price is what killed me haha, it costs a shit ton as I as eating 3 times as much as I used to. But online bulk whey can be found cheap, rice, beans and eggs are cheap and can be staples. Meat is expensive so buy on sale/bulk and freeze it, or sub it out with cheaper options. Hit up farmers markets or search out where college kids buy groceries

Yeah medium to large size. 

I've been lifting weights since I was 15, going to exhaustion almost every set and having to roll the bar down my chest to my pelvis before lifting it off to the side. So as a kiddie I whupped ass in the gym and for my size was one of the brawniest dudes in high school and college. But after 60 shoulder dislocations, two surgeries, and years in the military (interestingly enough) I lost a lot of mass. Well in trying to get it back I was actually NOT doing the right stuff in the gym- I was never going hard enough. Then I did the superslow/hiit workouts for a couple years after talking to Mark Sisson about it at the 21 convention in 2010, but I didn't gain a lot of mass at all, just a fuck ton of strength and no one could smoke me when it came to conditioning. It wasn't till I tweaked my workouts for mass that I started putting the muskles back on.