Deals On Meals: Big Gains For Websites Offering Low Cost Recipes

Here's an upside to soaring food prices: big gains for certain websites.

At www.allrecipes.com, traffic to low-budget and quick-and-easy recipes has nearly doubled over the last three months. Www.thriftyfun.com recorded more than 4 million page views in March, almost twice the number than in the same month last year. And www.hillbillyhousewife.com, not known for recipes involving truffle oil or sauteed chanterelles, has more visitors too.

People who get a kick out of saving are eager for ideas.

"We've had more tips than at any other time in our site's history," said Jessica Stewartmaize, editor at ThiftyFun, which began in 1997 as a weekly e-mail newsletter called the Coupon Clipper and evolved into a website two years later.

It's quite a departure from the old days -- a couple of years ago -- when it was "an embarrassment" to talk about being a penny pincher, said Pamela Munro, an actor and ThriftyFun blogger who lives in Hollywood. "You were supposed to spend money, not talk about how to save it."

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