I don't want to buy lots of materials for soil building. I'm interested in what people use to build their soils on a budget?

collect all the organic plant material that you can either from onsite or from the neighbourhood grass clippings included, i'd even suggest go as far as getting all the kitchen scraps you and use this material to built the soil cover it well with a good green hay type mulch, can't see you missing just it will take a bit of organising to get material.

i'm not a big fan but some refuse tips sell or give away composted humus material from collected waste product.

len

You need nitrogen materials & carbon materials, all of which you can get free, from stores or curbside & in alleys!

Nitrogen:

Starbucks:
"Grounds for the Garden" used coffee grounds, supposed to be available at all corporate-owned stores.

Local restaurants & grocery stores:
I get used tea bags, the big square institutional size, about a trash bag full every day, from a restaurant in town.
Many people have arrangements with vegetable stands & grocery store produce managers to pick up unsold icky produce.

Trash:
People put their grass clippings & shrubbery trimmings in trash bags & set them out for the garbage truck.
Sunday evening is a great time to curb shop, since a lot of people do their lawn work on the week-end.

Halloween:
The day after Halloween, people put their pumpkins in the trash to be taken to the landfill.

Carbon:
shred your junk mail.

Compost your newspapers, magazines, & used office paper.

Cardboard:
grocery stores, dollar stores, & beer, wine, & liquor stores have an unending supply of it.

To make it easier to tear up, keep a big Rubbermaid bin full of water, & soak the cardboard before putting it in the compost or on the garden.

Hay:
those same people who toss out their pumpkins also toss out the bale of hay they had on the porch for decoration.

Autumn leaves:
you'll find them sitting at the curb or in the alley, neatly bagged, waiting for the trash truck. or for you. or me...

I also have had pretty good luck with the big orange trucks.
When I see an Asplundh truck trimming trees, I always stop & ask for their trimmings.
Sometimes they say they'll call when the truck is full & then they don't (maybe they forget, maybe they lose my phone number, maybe it gets too late & they want to go home...), but it works often enough to make it worthwhile.

(In some areas, people have had good luck calling the utility companies or the city department that does this work, but here, independent contractors do it, so I just ask the guys in the trucks.)

Compost and green manures and animal manures are all good, but they aren't the whole story. You can read up on what nutrients fruits and vegetables can contain, but you have to realize that if the soil doesn't contain enough of a nutrient, the plant isn't going to contain it. It can't absorb what isn't there.

Sue