7 Things the Blogger Behind Budget Bytes Learned from Working at Whole Foods for 3 Years

Beth Moncel, the blogger behind the massively popular Budget Bytes, is super open about the fact that she worked at the Whole Foods prepared foods counter. It’s where she learned the tricks of the trade, including (but not limited to) how to make recipes made of fresh ingredients that won’t cost your whole paycheck (the irony of which is not lost on us!).

Thanks to her thoughtful insights and takeaways, Beth’s blog following grew to new heights, so much so that it became her full-time gig. Here are Beth’s top seven budget-tightening lessons that led to Budget Bytes!

“Batch cooking can save both time and money. If the Whole Foods’ prepared food counter made every dish fresh every single day, it would take twice as much man power (so most recipes are batch cooked). This taught me to cook once and eat the leftovers for days, which meant I only had to cook on my day off.”

“Everyone is obsessed with ‘fresh’ in our society, but a lot of things you buy from pre-pack sections of grocery stores are made in advance and sold over the three days following. Most of the time you can’t tell the difference between something that was cooked that day, and something that was cooked two days ago. That helped me get comfortable with leftovers at home.”

“Most things were cooked from scratch in our Whole Foods kitchen — and most of the recipes were incredibly simple to make (read: You don’t need lots of expensive ingredients). We’d quickly sauté fresh vegetables with a little seasoning and were good to go! That taught me how to keep my meals simple at home. Once you learn how good fresh food is, you realize you don’t have to put in a lot of work (or money!) to make it taste good.”

“Bulk up your meals with low-cost ingredients (i.e., pasta, rice, cabbage, or lentils), and go light on expensive ingredients like meat and cheese to keep down total meal cost. When I worked at the Whole Foods pizza station, I learned that cheese was very strictly measured, while dough, sauce, and vegetables were not so much. Same for sandwiches! Meat and cheese were pre-portioned, but vegetables weren’t.”

“Do whatever you can to find a use for every scrap of food before it ends up in the trash (or compost). At Whole Foods, we had to weigh and record all spoiled food because that spoiled food is money that needed to be subtracted from the bottom line. We used up miscellaneous ingredients for pizza toppings, stir-fries, or soups to make sure they didn’t go to waste. I now apply the same principle at home.”

“In the process of repurposing ingredients, the cooks would sometimes get very creative with their ingredient combinations, but I learned that’s how you discover awesome new flavors! Now I love to throw whatever I have in the fridge into a bowl and see how it turns out.” (Try this strategy the next time you feel like there’s nothing in the house to eat and are considering expensive takeout!)

“There are a lot of moving parts in a commercial kitchen, so it’s important to clean as you go so that other people can use the workspace or equipment. Practicing that habit at home makes cleanup so much easier, and meal prep a lot less daunting.” (A clean kitchen is a more inviting kitchen, which means you’ll be more likely to cook and save money!)