Are you doing the prescribed lifts for 5x5?

You should take what you can do for a 5RM and chop that by at *least* 20%. Start there. Then progress 5lbs per week. This is progressive overload. If you start too high you just smack a wall right away and thats it. You should probably have at least 4 weeks before you're starting to fail.

If you're broke then ditch the supps. Clean & Whole food will take you alot of places if you use it correctly.

IronWorker