Budget buffet

coxy07

Just been asked if I can cater for a bride and groom on a very tight budget. They are catering for about 40 people on a budget of about £100. Any ideas? I think they want a buffet rather than a hot pot type of thing.

McKneff

Are you a caterer in a business or a friend doing a favour

Alleycat

Eeek!! Thats only £2.50 per head! Are you intending to make a profit or is this for friends?

I don't think you would be able to manage a hot buffet, but potentially a cold one with salads - green, potato salad etc, some sandwiches etc.

Scousebird_2

I would suggest perhaps going to somewhere like Aldi as you can het quite a lot party wise from there. or even £50 for fresh bread and salad from ADSA and then perhaps Home Bargains for party stuff like crisps and biscuits etc. Bearing in mind I live up north. I don't know where in the country you are and whether you have home bargains. It really is such a good place!

smartie12

When is the wedding??

I'm doing my own buffet for our wedding and as its xmas there's going to be a lot of party food around in the supermarkets which is going to be a big help:D

skintbutsmiling01

i think you could potemtially do a big curry or something similar- the meat wouldnt be the best quality but if you flavour it etc? Iceland do ok ranges for sausage rolls etc.

MoneySaver82

One possibility might be what we did, bought a bulk lot of good quality meat - burgers, sausages, pork chops - from a butchers and did a bbq and just served with plain salad, coleslaw, potato salad and bread rolls and it went down very well!! It worked out about £4 per head so slightly over your budget, but you could cut that down depending on what meat you got/where and our rolls were from a bakers but could get cheaper from asda or somewhere. Or do the same but with cold meats which is what a friend did, we just decided on hot food as it was winter.

Limara

i recently catered for a mates 60th for 40 to 50 people, they had 8 quiches, large tray of sliced ham and chicken large pots of coleslaw, potato salad, ( prebought as on offer at makro at time but would normally make my own)mexican rice 2 huge serving tays of prawn vol au vents and two huge trays of sausage rolls ( asda new cumberland sausage rolls bite size in the christmas range I am told are the best ever) a large tray of asda smart price chicken nuggets, 4 large Pizzas, and a tray of cocktail sausage on sticks and another of cheese and pineapple on sticks the most expensive thing to do is actually the cheese and pineapple on sticks even when cheese is on offer it doesnt go far.
then there were 8 loaves of bread done into cheese and pickle, cheese and tomato ham and tomato and tuna and mayo.
8 assorted gateaux.
This came to about 120 quid BUT i had 36 hours notice to shop and prepare as their venue was cancelled, if you have a few weeks to shop and can get a few offers you should be able to do the same at least 20 quid CHEAPER ..... quiches normally go on offer for a quid at morrisons and a different one changes to offer in around 2 weeks so you should be able to get 2 different flavours and freeze them if you have 2 weeks notice! prawns are normally on offer some where ( in asda last week) that would have saved a tenner alone there wasnt one pizza on offr that week in either morrisons or asda so they were almost doube what it would have been if there was an offer on.if I had more time to shop in advance. I personally wouldnt skimp by getting a cheaper brand they picked up the sausage rolls and pork pies from some where other asda and I was told they were horrible... not worth the little saving you make.
you can also cut back a bit of cost in sandwiches by having egg instead of cheese or ham ... but the Birthday boy doesnt eat egg so I couldnt do it for his.
This was almost all day in kitchen for me the friday and I got up at 6 am on the morning to do the sandwiches and the sausage rolls and vol au vents as I dont like them done the day before
now I need to prepare for my own /daughters shared party next may thats going to be fun catering for around 100 on my birthday!

roxalana

I recently catered for 40 people for £50 (food only as pub venue - no drinks included) and we had loads of food left so it is definitely do-able!

As others have said if you have lots of time til the wedding (and have freezer room) shop around for special offers, buy one get one frees and anything in the reduced section you can freeze.

I think we had
2 loaves worth of triangle sarnies (cheese and chicken & sweetcorn - using iceland ready cooked chicken £2 a bag!)
2 iceland pizzas
50 sausage rolls
3 quiches
cheese, sausage and pickled onion on stick (birthday boy insisted!)
crisps, dips, breadsticks, vegetable dippers.
chicken drumsticks
cakes
spring rolls
chicken dippers
meat skewers
etc!

You may want something a little posher and I do think a hot buffet would be possible but it depends if you can keep that hot to prevent food poisoning etc!

Good luck!

waddy80

Try the old style board there are loads of buffet ideas on there.