Cheap Cheeseboard Ideas (Starting at £2.28!)
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Christmas can be very expensive of year and on top of presents, there is food to buy as well. In this post, I am going to share with you two cheap cheeseboard ideas – one costing £2.28 (four different kinds of cheese and crackers) and a second costing £4.87 (five different kinds of cheese, cracker selection and chutney).
One of my favourite things to eat at Christmas is cheese. Of course, I eat cheese all year round, but Christmas is the time when the cheese boards start to come out in force and we indulge in cheeses we might not eat at any other time of year.
Cheap Cheeseboard Ideas
This Christmas I’ve come up with two budget cheese board ideas that both come in under a fiver. Cheeseboard one would feed 3-4 people while cheeseboard two would feed 6-8 people, maybe more.
I did shop at two different places to put this cheeseboard together which I’m aware not everyone can do but my focus was on the cheapest price rather than convenience. I’ll add in some alternatives at the end so you can compare prices by shopping elsewhere.
The prices mentioned were correct as of 11/12/2021. I’ve cost for buying everything rather than costing based on using half a box of something. I haven’t included the cost of butter in my calculations because it’s something most people would have in and it varies hugely how much people would use or serve.
Cheap Cheeseboard Ideas – Cheeseboard One
Cost £2.28
Cheese Selection £2.09 Home bargains (Also available in Sainsburys for £3)
Crackers – 19p Farmfoods
Well, there was a lot more cheese here than I expected so I didn’t have room for the crackers on my board!
I love this pack of cheese from Home Bargains costing just £2.09 for four kinds of cheese. It includes Cheddar, Double Gloucester with Spring Onions, Wensleydales with Cranberries and Red Leicester.
Many cheeseboard boxes from supermarkets cost upwards of £5 and often contain french or blue cheeses which I know not everyone likes.
You can buy a packet of basic cream crackers from Farm Foods for just 19p. I think the cheapest I’ve seen in the big four supermarkets (and Lidl and Aldi) is around 39p although that’s probably a slightly larger pack.
If you’re on a really tight budget this Christmas then this is a fab way to create a delicious and very cheeseboard!
Cheap Cheeseboard Ideas – Cheeseboard Two
Cost: £4.87
Cheese Selection £.209 – Home Bargains (Also available in Sainsburys for £3)
Camembert 89p – Home Bargains
Cracker Selection £1 – Farm Foods (also available in Poundland)
Onion Chutney 89p Home Bargains (other flavours available for the same price)
Rosemary free from my garden
While this cheeseboard is more than double the cost of the first one, it would definitely feed more people, contains a more interesting selection of crackers, one extra cheese and a whole jar of chutney too. I still think a cheeseboard for under a fiver is a bargain too!
With this cheeseboard, I’ve added french camembert for those that may have missed it on the first board. I also wanted to include a chutney – my choice was caramelised red onion but there were others available in-store including apple, tomato and spicy chilli chutney.
After plating this cheeseboard there were also a fair few crackers leftover which could be eaten another day!
How To Create Your Own Cheap Cheeseboard
Now I’ve shown you how I would create a budget cheeseboard, I wanted to share with you a few extra ways you can save money on a cheeseboard at Christmas.
My first tip would be to use these ideas as a starting point and then add extra cheese if there’s any you love (I’ll admit I’m missing some good old Stilton here!) and ditch anything you don’t like such as the chutney.
Shop Around – Shopping around can be a great way to save although of course, you do need to factor in your time and fuel or transportation costs. Places like B&M, Home Bargains and Poundland often have better prices than the supermarkets.
Buy Yellow Stickers – Geneally speaking cheese lasts for ages past its use-by date, especially if it’s sealed in plastic so if you spot a yellow sticker cheese selection it could be worth grabbing it. You could also freeze it until Christmas.
This is one I bought a couple of years ago which was almost half price!
Look at the price per 100 grams – When there are lots of cheese options it can be tricky to figure out which is the best value, especially when there are various special offers. Looking at the price per 100 grams can help you figure out the best deal.
Avoid Food Waste – Unfortunately, Christmas is a time when a lot of food waste occurs and food waste means you’re pretty much throwing money in the bin.
Some of the best ways to prevent food waste are to avoid overbuying, know what can be frozen and plan some recipes that can be used to make leftovers into something new.
Make Your Own Crackers – I recently shared a post on how to make Melba Toast which is very cheap if you use a yellow sticker loaf.
These are my cheap cheeseboard ideas – is there anything you would add?
