Hi there! Welcome to Beeyond Cereal. I’m Nicole, the owner, recipe developer, food photographer, and budgeting enthusiast behind this frugal food blog.
Here is where you will find all of my best grocery budgeting tips, tricks, and tasty recipes in one place. My goal is to help you master the art of saving money while enjoying delicious budget-friendly meals.
Get to Know Me Better
I grew up on a Native American Reservation, and started noticing the economic differences in my area at a young age. I also spent a few weeks every summer, traveling the country with my long-haul truck-driving father.
During this time I developed a love for math. I learned to calculate gas mileage and distances before I was 10. I also got firsthand knowledge of fluctuations in food prices. Just the cost of an apple can vary greatly depending on where you are.
At age 11 I joined a nonprofit youth group for girls and competed in their annual cooking competitions, often bringing home award ribbons. Planning events, calculating costs for dinner parties, and trying to maximize fundraiser profits gave me a strong foundation for budgeting and trying to get the “biggest bang for your buck.”
As a teen, I took 3 years of culinary arts in High School where I excelled in recipe development, restaurant planning, and basic kitchen skills.
At age 20, I met my now husband through a wrong number text message and found out he was stationed at the Army base close to my house. It was fate. During the next few years we moved around the country and out of necessity I took my financial passions to new heights.
I learned to extreme coupon and live a frugal lifestyle by repurposing dinner leftovers and creating cheap meal plans and affordable recipes. We were able to save a lot of money and were able to pay off thousands of dollars of debt (including medical, personal, and auto).
In 2018 I started a financial blog where I shared all of the best money-saving advice for the average person, and I started freelance writing for food blogs as a side hustle. This is when I realized I could combine my two greatest passions - food and money. I decided to wait until we were in a better place before embarking on this path.
Then 2020 happened and I realized it was “now or never.” I took some photos of a recipe using my phone and a background made of Dollar Tree contact paper and foam board. It looked horrible, but I went ahead and posted my microwave scotcheroo recipe, and from there I was hooked.
Since then I have been constantly updating, photographing, and calculating recipes. With my two kids and husband as my official food testers, I know that I’m in good hands.
As this blog continued to grow, I closed down my financial blog and put all my focus on Beeyond Cereal, moving my best grocery-related advice here so it’s all in one convenient place.
What You’ll Find on Beeyond Cereal
- Affordable recipes. While everyone’s definition of reasonably priced foods may vary, I try to make sure that every recipe here is affordable and can fit into almost any budget. We have recipes under $3 a serving and recipes that meals that cost less than $5 to make!
- Family-Friendly Recipes. You won’t find cocktails and fancy goat cheese hors d'oeuvres, but you will find recipes that kids and adults can enjoy. Comfort foods, tasty veggies, and meals that even the pickiest of eaters would like.
- Trusted recipes. You can feel rest assured that every recipe on this site has been personally tested by me (and my family) countless times. Every post includes simple steps without any “major skills” needed, so any at home or self taught cook can easily follow along.
More About Nicole and the Blog
When I was about 8 years old my mom let me melt the butter and cheese for boxed macaroni without supervision. I failed. The cheese was burnt because I didn't turn off the stove burner, and we had to steal a packet from another box and redo it.
From this point on I put a stronger focus on actually reading recipes and following instructions. Not long after this event I found a biscuit recipe in our elementary textbook and made a delicious batch of biscuits and the tips that I learned from that recipe page are still with me today.
My family has got to be my biggest motivation and while that may sound like a cliche, it’s true. I’ve got two kids constantly asking me if I made recipes today or if I plan on making recipes soon.
I also have an incredibly supportive husband that will literally drop everything to be there for me, whether it's being a hand model for my photos, running to the store for an ingredient I need, being the shoulder to cry on when I'm stressed, or telling me to put the computer down and take a break. My family is my biggest support team and motivates me to try harder and do better.
I knew for 2 years that I wanted to start a food blog, before actually doing it, and during that time I couldn't think of any names, logos, color schemes, etc. Then literally overnight I had a dream where it all came to me.
Someone had posted online the night before saying how they were so broke they could only afford to eat cereal for dinner and that really stuck with me. I wanted to share cheap recipes with everyone so that nobody felt as though they needed to eat cereal for dinner, (unless they wanted to- because cereal is delicious).
Within hours I had everything planned from the site name to the logo, color scheme etc. I had even drafted an example logo on the computer for reference too! I wanted to share affordable recipes beyond just cereal, or rather, Beeyond Cereal.
My inspiration comes from everywhere. I can see a keyword somewhere and instantly envision what it’d look like when done. I can try a food or see something and think "wow you know what could make that better?”
Or sometimes (and most often) I create a recipe out of thin air because we have limited ingredients or time before dinner and something needs to get on the table. I find that this comes to me naturally because I can mix flavors and textures in my mind before putting them together in real life, so my "creative recipes" are often the best received from my family.
When these recipes are truly good enough, I recreate them from memory, measuring and taking notes as I go, until they’re finally re-creatable and blog-worthy.
We eat it of course! Every meal or recipe I share on this site is something that my family has eaten (multiple times). Dinners, desserts, and everything in between. Leftover meals are either repurposed into new meals or warmed up and eaten as-is.
Sometimes I gift cookies and banana bread to relatives to help save us from eating them all.
I am always open to the possibility and opportunity to work with brands that would be a good fit.
Some of my favorite hobbies include watching TV with my husband. I love watching One Piece, Doctor Who, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Indiana Jones Stardust, and The Princess Bride. When I'm not working on this blog, I might be busy doing technical stuff on my sister's crochet blog- TheCaffeinatedSnail.com).
When I take a break from technology, you'll likely find me engaged in activities like crocheting, reading novels, baking sourdough bread, or updating our family's financial spreadsheet. I love to stay organized and busy.
My Work
I have been featured and/or mentioned in various places including Parade, Yahoo Finance, Go BankingRates, Eating on a Dime, Saving Dollars and Sense, The Frugal Navy Wife, and The Pioneer Woman (example below).
My Favorite Recipes
These are some of my most treasured recipes for one reason or another. I am always going back and making these on repeat.
- Instant Pot Boxed Au Gratin PotatoesRecipe $3.02 / Serving $0.30
- Air Fryer Pork Loin RoastRecipe $10.27 / Serving $1.28
- Air Fryer Pizza RollsRecipe $2.24 / Serving $0.56
- Easy Salsa RiceRecipe $2.43 / Serving $0.41
- Guacamole Without CilantroRecipe $2.37
- Caramel Iced CoffeeRecipe $0.47 / Serving $0.24
- French Bread Pepperoni PizzaRecipe $4.53 / Serving $1.13
- Mac and Cheese Tuna CasseroleRecipe $6.94 / Serving $0.87
From my family’s kitchen to yours, I hope you enjoy looking through the recipes on this site and bringing new dishes to the table for affordable prices.
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How can I assist you?
Looking for certain recipes?
Need to save money on food?
Check out my Contact Us page for details on how to get in touch with me.