I’m Marcus Bendford. I run Broke & Buff out of a 400 square foot apartment in Columbus, Ohio, and every recipe on this site got cooked in the same tiny kitchen you’re probably standing in right now. One pan, one sheet, a slow cooker, and a blender I bought used. That’s the whole operation.
Here’s the short version of why this site exists: I started lifting at 19 on a student budget and my program wanted way more protein than I could afford. So I did what a broke Exercise Science major does. I put it on a spreadsheet. Protein per dollar, every ingredient, every store. I tracked that math for five years before it ever became a website.
Why high-protein on a budget
Protein is a math problem before it’s a cooking problem. Solve the math and the cooking is easy. The thing nobody tells you when you’re broke is that hitting your protein is cheap. It’s the convenience that costs money, not the protein itself. Chicken, eggs, oats, canned fish, dry beans, Greek yogurt, whey. None of that is expensive. Ordering out and buying pre-portioned everything is what wrecks your grocery budget.
I have a BS in Exercise Science from Ohio State, so I understand protein targets, leucine, and the cut and bulk math from first principles. But I’m not a chef. I never trained to cook. I learned because I had to, and that’s exactly why the recipes here work in a normal kitchen with normal skills.
What you actually get here
Every recipe logs two numbers before it publishes, no exceptions:
- Grams of protein per serving – weighed on a $12 kitchen scale and logged in a free macro app, nothing you can’t replicate
- Cost per serving – priced at Aldi, Kroger, and Walmart, not some specialty store with $9 protein bars
I show the grocery math out loud. Price per pound, total cost, cost per serving. If a cheap swap failed, I tell you. I tried egg whites once to shave cost on a dish and it went rubbery, so I say use whole eggs. Chicken thighs beat breast on price but lose on leanness when you’re cutting, so I say that too. You get the real receipt, not a number I copied off another blog.
The one rule
Broke and buff aren’t opposites. I coached a handful of college lifters through their first cut and bulk on ramen-tier budgets, and it worked every time because the whole thing is just math you can actually afford. I’ll never shame your budget. I’ve eaten the same six meal-prep containers for a week and hated them by Thursday, same as you will.
Questions, corrections, or a recipe that flopped for you? Tell me through the contact form. I read them.