Building a cheap charcuterie board is easy if you follow a few simple tips. We will show you some cute and cheap charcuterie board ideas made with ingredients found at Trader Joe's. All for under $30 too! Cheap charcuterie boards are the perfect appetizer for your next game night, dinner party, holiday get together or brunch!
I'm not going to lie, making charcuterie boards used to cause me a little stress. But people love them. I love them. So I pressed on and made them anyway. But once I put different foods into category type and color, that made creating cute charcuterie boards a lot easier. However, charcuterie boards can get expensive if you're not careful. I found that both Trader Joe's and Aldi have perfect ingredients that cost a lot less. You can make a cute, easy charcuterie board from simple ingredients for under $30. For this post, we used ingredients from Trader Joe's. I'll even show you a step by step process and post my receipt!
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Ingredients for an cheap charcuterie board
- Two different colors or types of crackers (buy an assorted pack!)
- Two different colors or types of cheeses (like cheddar or Spanish cheeses)
- Two different types of meats (buy an assorted pack!)
- Two different types of fruit (like grapes and berries)
Ideas for an easy charcuterie board
Step 1: Lay out two different types of crackers in an S pattern.
Step 2: Add two or more types of fruits in different spots so that they are not touching each other.
Step 3: Roll or fold two or more types of meats. Add them in different spots.
Step 4: Fill in all the remaining spots with two or more colors/types of cheeses.
Substitutions
- Gluten free - make sure to choose gluten free crackers.
- Vegan - skip the meats (or use meat substitutes) and use vegan cheeses.
Storage
To store leftover charcuterie board ingredients, separate them into different air tight containers. Meats, cheeses and fruits go in the refrigerator. Crackers can be stored at room temperature.
Next Level Tips
- This post was about making an easy and cheap charcuterie board from ingredients found at Trader Joe's. But you can always fill in your board with ingredients you already have at home. I usually have nuts, olives, carrots, hummus and little jam and honey jars at home. Sometimes, I'll use baguette slices, mustards, chocolates and other candies if I have those too.
- You can use any style or shape of board for your charcuterie board. You can even just use parchment paper on the counter! The dimensions of the boards in the photos are as follows: the rectangle board is 9x13 inches and the circle board is 13.5 inches in diameter.
Cost
For this easy and cheap charcuterie board, we wanted to stay under a budget of $30. It was close, but we did by 6 cents! The most expensive part of our purchase was the fruit. My daughter loves to use grapes and strawberries in her charcuterie boards, but I think we could have saved money by picking other fruits that were cheaper at Trader Joe's.
I've seen a lot of posts online where they say they made a charcuterie board for X dollars but then add a whole bunch of other stuff from home. So I wanted to make sure that our first board (the rectangle board) only used the items that we bought at Trader Joe's. And guess what? We did it and had leftovers too! So we decided to make a second board (the circle board). We had some meat leftover from the first board, but my daughter may have eaten it. Ahem. So for the second board, we decided to add items from home which were the nuts, olives, blackberries and blueberries. Even after the second board, we still had some leftover fruit and crackers from our Trader Joe's purchase.
FAQ
If you're making a board on a budget, I would recommend using a medium-sized board. The rectangle board in the photos is 9x13 inches. If you are hosting, you can always refill the board as needed or make a second board with the leftovers. If you're taking the board to a party, medium size works for that too. You don't want to take a massive board somewhere if you don't know if it will fit and what other foods will be there.
When you're doing a charcuterie board on a budget, we suggest using different colored and textures of cheeses. You can use a hard cheddar or a gouda for orange. For white, you can use a manchego (we bought a Spanish sampler at Trader Joe's), a soft brie, havarati or Monterey Jack. You can pick cheeses that would normally be eaten with crackers or cut the cheeses into smaller cubes or pieces so that they can be eaten any themselves. 
Use at least two different types of meats. Prosciutto can be rolled. Pre-sliced hard salami meats are always a hit. Little beef sticks are a great finger food too. Even lunch meat will work! Just roll it and make it took pretty.
Flat crackers like table water crackers always work. Buttered crackers and flavored crackers work too. If you have spicy cheeses and meats, pick plain crackers. If you're using more plain cheeses, then a flavored cracker is a perfect pick. Sliced baguette is a filling and inexpensive option too.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
How to Make a Cheap Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
- 2 or more different types of cheeses (different colors and textures work best)
- 2 or more different types of crackers
- 2 or more different types of meats
- 2 or more different fruits
Instructions
- Start with the crackers. Lay them on the board in an S shape so that the whole board has crackers from end to end. Use some from each type of cracker.
- Next, place the fruit in groups near the crackers. For fruits that may bleed or juice, place them in a small bowl on the board. For grapes, cut them into small groups of 3 or 4 before placing them in clusters on the board.
- After the fruit, place the meats on the board near the fruit. If you're using a long thin meat like prosciutto, roll it so that it's smaller. If you're using large pieces of salami, you can fold them in half and then fold them in half again and then cluster them on the board like flowers.
- Lastly, fill in the rest of the board with sliced, cubed or chunks of different cheeses.
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