Thrifty Gobbler

Shortlisted for The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award, Thrifty Gobbler is a brand new site aimed at those who love their food, hut who don't have that much money. We caught up with founders Richard Attley and Laura Goodman to find out more.

Explain your website.

We wanted to create an onlinefood magazine that catered to people like ourselves: young, short of cash, but passionate about the food they eat - whatever that might be. Useful, fun, engaging content is the focus, so we try to make the writing as entertaining as possible.

How does it make money?

It doesn't, yet. We're currently talking through a couple of sponsorship deals which would enable us to devote more time to the project but our priority was always to ensure the content was as good as possible. Money had to be a secondary consideration - we've been involved professionally with magazine sites which think the other way round - it doesn't work.

What is your background?

We are both freelance journalists from backgrounds other than food. In fact neither of us had written about food before Gobbler; this helps maintain the informal, not always perfectly informed approach to the subject matter.

When did the site launch?

September 2009.

How many visitors do you have per day and what are your targets for the coming year?

We get a few hundred a day on average, but that figure is rising steadily.

Describe your average visitor.

From what we can make out from our stats, our average visitor is a cross between a bored, Facebook scouring foodie and our nans. It's someone who loves food and hates spending too much money on it.

Who are your closest competitors?

We're not really competing with anyone in particular, but we certainly look up to the Guardian's Food Of Mouth blog - it's grand.

What makes Thrifty Gobbler unique?

The fact that it doesn't take itself or the food too seriously. It's about enjoying food, eating food, cooking food and doing it all as cheaply as possible. Its name is unique. Some might say we're unique…

Where and what was your all-time favourite meal?

Bill Granger's brunches at Bill's in Sydney were as good as everyone warned us they would be. We went two years ago while we were backpacking, so were forced to have a few very thrifty days to save up for the feast (we remember only Ritz crackers, watery olives and some nice people from Israel making us houmous). It was worth it - at Bill's we ate sweetcorn fritters with avocado salsa, creamy scrambled eggs, blueberry muffins and several rich, nutty, chocolatey coffees… Woah. If only Bill lived nearer…

What is your signaturedish?

We're big breakfast fans (see above). Weekends for us mean pancakes, French toast, eggs Benedict or brioche alongside head-sized pots of coffee. Our signature dish, and the picture everyone went nuts for when Gobbler launched, is chorizo hash with poached eggs . Try not to dribble.

What has been the most positive thing to come out of Thrifty Gobbler so far?

It's been just over two months so we were pretty chuffed to have been shortlisted for GWG's Website of the Year Award. It was especially nice reading our users' feedback.

Where do you see ThriftyGobbler going from here?

We're filling up our larder with the results of some taste tests we've been ‘carrying out' (we've eaten a lot of mince pies), so that section should be nicely stocked soon. Our only aim is to keep producing content which is playful, pretty to look at and genuinely useful for food fans like us. Then there are these sponsorship deals to think about. And maybe next Christmas a publisher will let us loose on actual real live paper and there'll be a Thrifty Gobbler book in actual peoples' stockings. That'd be nice.

Visit www.thriftygobbler.com

10 December 09