Hey Wasp!
I can tell you what I used on my outdoor grow when I used buckets. Where I live it is very warm and overly dry; like 15% humidity when it rains. I used 5 gallon buckest with 50% steer manure from home depot and 50% peat moss. I got the big container of peat moss also at home depot for like $11 and the steer manure is about $2 a bag or so. It cost me like $15 for my soil and I still had some left over. (I filled up 5 buckets with this BTW)
I only had to water every weekend, even in the hot month of August. By September I only had to water about every week and a half to every two weeks. The peat moss did a great job of storing water. You can buy the peat at Home Depot or Lowes for about the same price. Same with steer manure.
I did not have to use any nutes until flowering, and I used the fox farm tiger bloom. You can buy it on Amazon, I found mine in a local greenhouse though.
Are there deer where you live? Sure are lots of deer where I am, Home Depot also sells a natural deer repellant. Spray it right around your plants and animals leave it alone. It smells awful but I never had any rabbits or deer bother my plants. It's also safe to spray on the plant in the veg stage, I wouldn't want it on my buds though.
This is just what I have done outdoors using buckets, hope it helps.
Update: On reading the article in this section about miracle grow, one of the fellow growers here mentioned an alternative cheap nutrient. Grow More Sea Grow. Here are a couple links for you, just thought I would share.
http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/gm-seagrow-16-16-16-jar.html
http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/gm-seagrow-4-26-26-jar.html