Budget Bytes Founder Beth Moncel Shares Her Secrets to a Successful Foodie Blog

We all know that eating out can be expensive, especially if you like good, quality food. Even fast food these days is not exactly cheap (a full fast food meal can cost between $6-$10 dollars… I can eat for almost two days for the amount of money). Cooking for yourself can also be very costly if you don’t know what you are doing. Newbie cookers beware! That’s why you need Beth Moncel and Budget Bytes.

The recipes on Budget Bytes are simple, quick and satisfying. The blog will probably be most useful for those who do not normally cook or have been too afraid to try.  Beth serves up the classics and shows how easy, satisfying and inexpensive they can be. If you are a chef or have been cooking for years then, yes, the blog may seem elementary.  However, there is a whole generation, no, a couple of generations that have grown up without simple home cooked meals.  Budget Bytes brings back the lost art of cooking.

We had the good fortune of sitting down with Budget Bytes founder Beth Moncel who dished us some secrets about her life and business.  Hope you enjoy!

1. Beth, thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions. Tell us when your love for cooking food began and could you also share a little bit about your background?

I would actually never call myself a professional chef. I have no formal training, so I’m simply a home cook (a professional blogger, yes). Chefs work hard for that title, and I don’t want to undermine that. I started cooking at an early age. We had seven people in our family, so my mom was almost always in the kitchen. I’d hang out with her there a lot and I learned through watching and helping. From the very beginning I appreciated the art and science that go into cooking and baking. I’ve worked in several commercial food service jobs over the years and have been lucky to work next to and learn from some truly talented people. But I would have to say that a bulk of what I’ve learned has just been from exploring and experimenting in the kitchen throughout my blogging journey.

2. Do you recommend formal training to others in pursuit of the field?

I have so much respect for professional chefs, but I don’t think I could ever do that. It’s really tough. The work hours are difficult and they are often under appreciated. I’m thankful for the internet and the blogging industry for giving me a way to explore my love of food (and make a living doing it!) without having to go down the road of becoming a professional chef.

3. What gave you the idea for Budget Bytes? Also, where’d you come up with the title?

Budget Bytes started as a project to keep myself busy and give me a creative outlet at a time when I didn’t have two pennies to rub together. My budget was absolutely bare-bones, but I was still having trouble making ends meet, so I decided to challenge myself to eat on less than $6 per day. I began calculating, down to the penny, everything that I ate or drank (I’m kind of geeky and enjoy that sort of thing). I made a few comments about things that I made on Facebook and people started asking me for recipes. It was at that point that I decided to look into blogging. I barely knew what a blog was, but learning about it gave me something to do and it was free. I honestly don’t remember the moment that I came up with the name, but it is simple and it has stuck!

4. What would you say were your biggest challenges in trying to grow a food website in your first year?

I started the site for myself and never expected anyone to see it, so I didn’t put any effort into making it grow. I was submitting photos to food photography sites like Tastespotting, but that was just for fun. I think my blog was just in the right niche at the right time (at the start of the major recession), so exposure and growth came naturally. I never really had to try. The blog had a life of its own. In fact, I felt like it was everything I could do to just keep up with it. There were many times where I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know if I could keep up. It really hasn’t been until this year, seven years into blogging, that I’ve taken social media and other growth strategies seriously.

5. What advice would you give to people trying to start their own blogs?

Make sure you have a niche. There are a million blogs out there so you need to have a clear vision of what sets yours apart from the rest and focus on that. There needs to be a reason for reader to return to yours rather than just finding something new. This can be a very specific topic, or even just a very unique style (visual OR writing). Also, you have to do it because you love it. If you don’t love the process regardless if anyone is watching, it’s not worth it. Blogging can be exhausting and if you don’t enjoy the day to day then you’ll never survive to see the endgame.

6. Tell us about your most embarrassing moment as a chef. There’s gotta be a funny story in there somewhere.

I’m drawing a blank on this one. I can’t think of anything. 😛 Maybe because there usually isn’t anyone around when I’m cooking at home to actually make me embarrassed!

7. If you were stranded on an island and had one meal (not just one food, a whole meal) to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

I’m stumped again. I don’t think I could ever choose just one meal! Plus, I think it would depend greatly on what I’m craving in that moment. You know how when you crave something nothing else even compares? But at any other time when you’re not craving it you could probably just take it or leave it?

8. Is Budget Bytes your full time gig now? If so, when did you switch to full time? If not, do you ever plan on making it a full time job?

I’ve been blogging exclusively for about a year and a half. I made a long, slow transition between my former job as a microbiologist to blogging full time, starting in 2014. I spent so many years being financially unstable, that I was really careful about making the switch. I first dropped down to four days per week and did that for a few months. Then I switched to working just every other weekend, then I dropped down to just being “on call” to cover call-ins or other gaps in the schedule. Finally, I felt comfortable with the stability of the blog’s revenue and realized that my time was more wisely spent either taking advantage of some down time or focusing on the blog instead of being in the lab. To this day, though, I make sure my state license is always current so that I can always fall back on that job if I need to!

9. One of the most important topics we talk about on Moneyinc is motivation as it relates to business and careers. What motivates you each day?

The emails I get from readers are my number one motivator. I would not still be doing this seven years later if I didn’t get emails on a regular basis telling me how my work has impacted the lives of my readers. It’s absolutely amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better purpose in life. And it’s not just saving money, it’s everything from improving health to finding passion in the kitchen or a way to spend quality time with their loved ones. The emails bring me to tears. The more I grow, the more people I can reach, so that gives me motivation to do better with the business every day. I’m really lucky to be doing what I’m doing and I don’t ever want to take that for granted.

10. What is the biggest life lesson you’ve learned from being a professional food blogger?

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn. They’re a good thing. I think too often people quit before they even begin because they’re afraid to fail. This journey has taught me that we often under estimate what we’re capable of and even if you don’t succeed the firs time, what you learn from your mistakes makes you better equipped to succeed on the next try.