Budget Buffet/Decoration Ideas?

seemasfriend

On the French bread theme - why not try French bread pizzas. Halve 6 inch long pieces and spread with tomato puree and toppings. Bake in the oven as per normal pizza. You could add some small jacket potatoes and a big bowl of homemade coleslaw. Job done! Have a wonderful party

flea72

4 or 5 pizzas for 30 people? Thats about 1 slice each. Also if cooking them yourself, it would have to be in batches, so they wouldnt all be cooked at once

Easiest, cheap food for lots of people is pans of chilli, curry, spag bol, with rice or pasta. Half hour tops to cook it, then just needs keeping warm.

krlyr

I'd probably bake all the pizzas so they just required warming up for 5 mins at the time. If people were putting their own toppings etc. on then people could be assembly their pizzas and snacking on the bread sticks etc. whilst other pizzas are warming.

krustylouise

Jacket potatoes are cheap and way to do and will keep warm in the oven/slow cooker wrapped in foil.

Owain_Moneysaver

Bruscetta look like you've tried.

It's really only slices of french bread topped with tomato puree and some leftovers under the grill.

bagpussbear

In addition to pizza and garlic bread, a cheapish and plentiful dish would be potato wedges, made yourself. I like the Schwartz bombay potato packet mix (though there are probably cheaper out there) and its dead simple to do - I took the liberty of costing it for you using Sainsburys website:

2 x Schwartz bombay potato sauce mix (currently buy 2 for £1.20)
1 bag of white potatoes -£2.09
Serve with some sour cream/dip (£1.00) or basics ketchup 30p

Filling and good if there are vegetarians coming too.

Maybe add a bag of basics sausage rolls (50 for 90p)

Obviously not sure of your budget, but if you could stretch some chicken nuggets (£3.00) and some cake (slice up a slab), I don't think anyone would go hungry :-)

SmarterNotHarder

Are you all students? In that case most people will understand economy, tell them to bring a bottle of something they like to drink and a bowl of something they like to eat Everyone wants to celebrate in style right? Let them help.

Then.. they'll have nibbles/deserts/sides sorted between them, and you have Pizza!! Buy a few bottles of ketchup/sweet chilli sauce/BBQ sauce to dip stuff in and happy partying!

sazaccount

To be honest when I was a student (only a couple of years ago) I really didn't care about the decorations of a party as long as the booze was running and there was people to celebrate with :beer:

Maybe buy some cheap balloons (always fun when youve had a few) and make some banners to go in the window/door and a couple on the wall. You can always get the guests to add there own message before the birthday person arrives and then remove the pens before the drinks... :rotfl:

Get the guests to bring a bottle of something and you can get some cheap fizzy wine/bucks fizz (only a couple of quid a bottle) to have when you shout surprise!!!

having some pizzas is an idea or some cheap nibbles but most of the guests will properly had something to eat so wont want a full "dinner" Eatings cheating was a very big phase at uni
Just remember to get some cheap bottles of soft drinks for people who dont drink or who are driving.

Have a good night!! :j