About Budget Bytes

What is Budget Bytes?

We believe good food doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. We believe you can create meals that you’re proud of, meals that make you feel full and healthy, meals that make you want to brag on social media, meals that will make you want your leftovers (no, really). We believe you can have all of this without spending your whole paycheck, buying a bunch of fancy kitchenware, or spending all day in the kitchen. We believe you can spend less and enjoy more.

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Groceries laid out on a surface, including vegetables, canned goods, and pasta

Our History

Budget Bytes was born in 2009 when founder, Beth Moncel, was drowning in student loan debt and trying to make ends meet on a meager hourly wage. She began calculating down to the penny everything she was spending on food. After a few quick calculations, Beth started noticing some patterns… Some ingredients were budget busters and some were budget savers! So she started to strategically craft recipes, tweaking the ratios of budget-savers and budget-busters, always making sure to use simple ingredients that would also leave her satisfied. Being the nerdy number cruncher she is, Beth couldn’t wait to share the recipes with the world.

Since the launch of BudgetBytes.com, Budget Bytes has been teaching people all around the world how to cook with their simple recipes and step-by-step photo instructions. We now have a team of recipe creators, social media masters, and techy number crunchers to keep the budget recipes flowing! You can find our print book at your nearest book store, our mobile app in the App store, or come visit us on every major social media platform. We hope you stick around, explore our extensive recipe archives, and whip up something delicious!

budget bytes team photo
The Budget Bytes team that develops recipes out of our Nashville studio. Left to right: Rebecca Denton (Photographer), Jess Rice (Recipe Development Manager), Jennie Alley (Senior Recipe Developer), and Melissa Nolan (Senior Recipe Developer). We develop, test, and photograph each and every recipe on Budget Bytes from Nashville Tennessee.

How we Test recipes

At Budget Bytes, every recipe is crafted and personally tested by our team of chefs with care in our Nashville test kitchen. Each dish goes through multiple rounds of testing to ensure it’s simple, affordable, and absolutely delicious before it’s shared on the blog. Quality and ease of prep are of our utmost concern and at the forefront of every recipe we develop. Our goal is to bring you reliable, budget-friendly recipes you can count on every time!

Check out our test kitchen studio tour with recipe developers Marsha McDougal and Jess Rice and learn about our testing process, our team, and more. We also are showing some behind the scenes clips from one of our recent recipe production days. We are so glad you’re here.

Meet Our Team

Headshot of Jess Rice holding a knife.

Jess Rice

Recipe Development Manager

Jess Rice finds joy and purpose in instructing aspiring chefs and home cooks alike. Chef Jess was recently working as a Chef Professor at Niagara College in Canadian wine country, teaching international students from all over the world food theory and classic culinary techniques before moving back to Nashville. Her diverse experience also includes working (literally) every position in a restaurant to traveling all over the world as a private chef to celebrities and rock ‘n roll legends. As a successful restaurateur, she helped shape the local food scene in Nashville with the debut of her restaurant AVO and its innovative and flavorful offerings. Jess’ passion for culinary excellence is evident in her diverse roles within the dynamic world of food. She’s excited to share her love for food with our readers at BudgetBytes! 

melissa nolan headshot

Melissa nolan

Senior Recipe Developer

Melissa is a proud native of Jacksonville Florida who attended FSU earning a business hospitality degree and a minor in anthropology. She then went to Johnson and Wales University to fulfill her dream of becoming a chef. Melissa’s culinary experience includes interning at Thomas Keller’s 3-Star Michelin rated Per Se Restaurant in NYC and working at many of Northeast Florida’s finest restaurants. The past 5 years she has been able to share her knowledge and fallen in love with teaching at JAX Cooking Studio as a Chef Instructor. She’s excited for the next step in her career at Budget Bytes as a Recipe Developer. Her favorite things include coffee, dogs, and of course, FOOD!

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Jennie Alley

Senior Recipe Developer

With a background in both the front and back of house, Jennie brings a deep understanding of hospitality to their role as a Recipe Developer. A graduate of culinary school, they have extensive experience in the food industry, combining technical expertise with a passion for creating innovative, approachable recipes.
Before stepping into the culinary world full-time, Jennie also built a diverse career in advertising, acting, and film. Based in Nashville, she is represented by an acting agent and continues to work in the entertainment industry from time to time. When not developing recipes, Jennie enjoys hiking, cooking, and spending time at the park with their dog, Jack, and partner, Travis.

Headshot of Paige Rhodes

Paige Rhodes

Social Media and Community Manager

Paige is a food blogger, author, and social media manager based in Louisville, Ky. On her blog, My Modern Cookery, she shares modern takes on classic recipes. She’s the author of three cookbooks, The 5-Ingredient Vegetarian Cookbook: 75 Effortless Recipes for Busy Cooks, 30-Minute Meatless Cookbook: Delicious Vegetarian Recipes for Busy People, and The Home Cook’s Guide to Journaling.

Meet Our Content Contributors

Profile picture of Beth Moncel

Beth Moncel

Founder

I’m a food lover, number cruncher, and meticulous budgeter. I love science and art, and the way they come together when I cook. I love to create, problem-solve, and learn new things. Making great food is my passion, my purpose, and my favorite thing to share with others. Although I retired from running Budget Bytes in 2024, I continue to consult with team on various projects!

Headshot of Marsha McDougal

Marsha McDougal

Contributor

Marsha is a Nashville native and the food blogger behind MapleJubilee where she shares simple, healthy-ish recipes for busy families and home cooks. As a cancer survivor, Marsha’s goal is to share more recipes using whole foods and real ingredients! She enjoys practicing her food photography, spending time with her family, and sharing her bubbly personality and food recipes on her YouTube channel.

Headshot of Krista Teigen with a friendly smile.

Krista Teigan

Contributor

In 2014, after a decade of work in the HR and Technical Communication fields, Krista decided to follow her passion for healthy cooking by starting her food blog, Destination Delish. Along the way, she honed her recipe development and food photography skills, and today, she is thrilled to be helping others in the food blogging space to develop and photograph mouth-watering recipes. Krista lives in Shoreview, Minnesota with her husband and two children. Outside of the kitchen, she enjoys exploring the Twin Cities food scene, cheering for her fave Minnesota sports teams, sweating on her Peloton, and jamming out to 90s and 2000s hits.

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Monti Carlo

Contributor

Monti Carlo is a Puerto Rican Telly Award-winning food TV personality, food writer, and special events chef. The author of Everyday Caribbean and the upcoming Spanglish (Simon & Schuster 2025) has also been published in The Washington Post, Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, and Today. Monti works with the prestigious James Beard Foundation as an Advisor, Host, and Awards Judge. Catch Monti on Netflix, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Tastemade, PBS, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and (of course) all over Budget Bytes!

Profile picture of Marion Kirkpatrick

Marion Kirkpatrick

Contributor

Marion Kirkpatrick is a former Associate Food Editor at Budget Bytes and a “professional home cook.” She brings nearly a decade of digital media and content management experience to the team — as well as some time spent in a professional kitchen! She studied Journalism & Electronic Media at The University of Tennessee Knoxville and lives in Nashville (her hometown) in a cute little house with her family.

Headshot of Aysegul Sanford.

Aysegul Sanford

Contributor

Aysegul Sanford, aka Ice, is the author behind foolproofliving.com, where she shares healthy tried and true recipes that are made without the use of refined sugars. She grew up in Turkey but traveled throughout the world always on a mission to further broaden her knowledge of cooking and flavors. Her favorite toy is her camera and she is almost always in the kitchen taking pictures of delicious food.

Headshot of Carmy Do

Carmy Do

Contributor

Carmy is the blogger behind carmyy.com where she shares ​​easy healthy-ish recipes from meal preps to weeknight dinners. She also created onepotonly.com where she shares recipes that only require one pot so cleaning up is a breeze on busy weeknights. Her goal is to share easy-to-follow recipes that help build confidence in beginner home cooks and make cooking enjoyable. She loves experimenting in the kitchen, taking cooking classes, and traveling to eat all the food. Carmy’s parents immigrated from Vietnam to Canada, where she was born and raised in the Chinese-Vietnamese community.

Headshot of Dara Yu

Dara Yu

Contributor

Dara Yu is an LA-based Chinese American chef. Her career started in the MasterChef Junior kitchen at age 12 where she placed as runner-up in season one. Following her run on MasterChef Junior, she worked in restaurants, food media, and culinary education. She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America,  with a high honors degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. Most recently, she was crowned the youngest champion of season 12 of MasterChef “Back to Win”. She finds inspiration from her early childhood food memories, cooking with her Chinese New Zealander grandmother, international trips to places like Italy and Japan, and her love for California’s diverse food culture. 

Olena Osipov in the kitchen.

Olena Osipov

Contributor

Olena Osipov has spent the last 11 years building her website, ifoodreal.com, making it her mission for you to cook quick and easy healthy meals for your family. She grew up in Ukraine watching her grandma cook with real food. Now she combines her recipes with a sprinkle of nutrition education and budget and time-saving skills (as a mom of 2), to help you eat healthy while living a busy life!

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