When Beth Moncel graduated from college in 2009, her budget-stretching ability reached its limit. Her student loan repayments had kicked in, and she was having a hard time making ends meet, even though she is a self-described “meticulous budgeter.”
“The only category of spending that I had left to manipulate was food,” Moncel said.
Moncel graduated with a degree in nutrition, and said she was “not willing to eat really poor-quality food” to make her budget.
She began breaking down the cost of foods she cooked and ate to see where her money was going. In doing so, she also began to tweak different ingredients to keep her costs low, “while still making well-rounded meals that were also really satisfying,” Moncel said.
“I didn’t feel like I was deprived,” Moncel said. “I got really excited about it. I was like ‘I should put this on the internet.’ And I did.”
Budget Bytes launched in 2009 in the midst of the Great Recession.
“There were a lot of other people out there who needed that information as well,” Moncel said. “And it just grew from there.”
The growth is evident by the number of Instagram followers for the Budget Bytes account, which at the time of publication, was just shy of half-a-million.
“We have a very large following and dedicated followers,” Moncel said. “They really love the community that we have together.”
The shared sense of community revolves around Moncel’s ever-increasing list of recipes that include categories broken down by course, protein, recipe style, season, dietary needs, recipe cost, and serving cost.
Budget Bytes bills itself as “a resource for people to learn how to cook on a budget,” Moncel said. “And cook food that’s satisfying but also budget-friendly.”
To create her budget-friendly recipes, Moncel lists out the necessary ingredients and the amount of the ingredients needed to cook. She then calculates the cost of each ingredient, adds them up, and divides by the number of servings yielded.
“Say I was making something with apples, and I bought a bag of [six] apples for $3.99,” she explained. “I would just take $3.99 divided by six apples. So, I know the cost of each apple, and then I know the cost that went into that recipe.”
Rather than sticking to a concrete budget for certain recipes, Moncel said tries to find the most cost-effective, but flavorful way to make a meal.
“I love all sorts of types of foods. So, I tend to cook everything under the sun,” Moncel said. “And I look at it on paper first to see if there's anything that I could probably tweak to make it a little bit more budget-friendly.”
Through the years and testing of thousands of recipes, Moncel said she’s found what she calls "budget busters" and "budget savers."
“Meats, cheeses, nuts, those ingredients are all very expensive,” Moncel said. “If you are not measuring or using a specific amount, it's really easy to get heavy-handed. And then the cost of your recipe will skyrocket.”
Instead, she focuses on bulking up meals with inexpensive ingredients.
“Pasta, beans, even a lot of vegetables like cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes. Those are all very inexpensive, still very healthy,” Moncel said. “And then I tweak the ratio of the recipe that way. So, I'm still satisfied, but it costs less.”
While Budget Bytes handles the meticulous cost calculation for users, Moncel still recommends taking the time to try it at least once.
“I think learning how to cost out your meals is such an important step. Because even if you do it once, you're gonna gain so much insight into where the money is being spent, and what you can do to really rein in your food budget,” she said.