How To Build a Holiday Cheese Board for Less Than $20

Cheese boards are so smart for holiday hosting because they don’t require any cooking and are easily adapted to lots of groups. Carefully curated, they can even accommodate your friends with special diets like vegetarian or gluten-free.

While building a cheese board is really fun, it can also get expensive quickly—especially if you add lots of accompaniments and extras to your cart. Plus, you don’t want to blow your whole hosting budget on cheese when there's other food and wine to buy, too. 

Cheese boards are something I shop for regularly because I love hosting friends and family, and over the years I’ve learned that you don’t need to spend a ton to make them gorgeous and generous. Here’s everything you know from shopping to slicing to make a holiday cheese board for six to eight guests for less than $20.

How To Shop for a Budget Cheese Board

Where you shop for your cheese board shop is part of your strategy for building a cheese board on a budget. Aldi and Trader Joe’s are two incredible options for finding flavorful and unique cheese that are between $3 to $5 each.

Don’t rule out your local cheese shop either though. Your cheese monger can make recommendations and cut small portions of exactly the cheeses you want. Plus, local cheese counters often have pre-cut small portions of cheese that you can mix and max for your cheese board. Here are some other helpful tips to keep in mind when shopping. 

Tips for Building a Budget Cheese Board

Plan on two to three ounces of cheese per person if your cheese board is an appetizer, and four to six ounces per person if the cheese board is the main component of your meal. Consider time of day and other snacks you might have on hand when determining how much cheese to buy too.

For example, a happy hour get-together won’t need as much cheese as a long grazing holiday party. 

• Buy just two or three cheeses. I like to make sure I have one soft tangy creamy cheese like fresh goat or brie, a semisoft cheese like gouda or havarti, and a harder aged or flavored cheese, like manchego, aged cheddar, or even Parmesan. A mix of goat and cow's milk cheeses is nice, but not required. 
• Do a comparison shop for cheeses. My regular grocery store has a “premium” cheese section near the deli and a more typical cheese selection in the dairy aisle. Often I can find less expensive versions of the same style of cheese in the dairy aisle simply because they are store brand rather than a more “premium” brand. Pre-sliced cheeses can be less expensive for “just right” portions too—so keep an eye on every variety of cheese when shopping. 
• Pick up two in-season fruits. Fruit pairs so perfectly with cheese but it is also a very affordable way to add texture, color, and heft to your cheese board. Consider buying the smallest portions of things like grapes or berries and buying single pears or apples to keep your budget in check. 
• Add one salty accompaniment. It can be really tempting to go all out on cured meat, olives, or nuts for your cheeseboard, but these things are the most costly per ounce. Let the cheese be the star of the board and pick just one. Sliced salami can be a cost-effective option. Buy just what you need from the grocery’s olive bar, if possible. Grab a snack-sized bag of nuts instead of investing in a whole pound. 
• Choose a single cracker or bread for serving. Chances are pretty high that you already have some crackers at home, so save your money for cheese and stick to a small single pack of crackers instead of buying several different varieties or a party pack. You can always dress up simple crackers by butter baking them with seasoning of your choice. 
• Shop your kitchen for fun extras. Once home, you can dress up your cheese board with things you might already have in your pantry. Olives or nuts are a great addition if you’ve already purchased them. You can dress up plain goat cheese with jam or honey. Dried fruit pairs well with most cheese. Condiments like mustard, hot honey, and pickles can all be used to fill out your cheese board. 
• Be strategic about how you cut your cheeses. While a whole block of cheese has its aesthetic benefits, proportioning your cheese before you put your cheese board out will help it last longer. Bite-sized cubes are great for common cheese like cheddar, while thin slices will make gouda or manchego last longer.

My $15 Cheese Board

This past weekend, I put all these strategies together as I popped into Aldi to grab cheese board ingredients to feed a few friends who were stopping by. I grabbed three different kinds of cheese—a goat cheese log for $1.79, a wedge of smoked gouda for $2.89, and a block of aged cheddar at $2.49. I also grabbed a box of crackers for $1.49, a large cosmic crisp apple for $1.10, and a bag of grapes for $2.34. I made an impulse buy of salami for $3.19.

That made my total just over $15 before tax. At home, I sliced the semi-soft cheese, topped the goat cheese with a little hot pepper jelly from my fridge, and arranged everything on a simple cutting board. One of our friends brought a bottle of wine and we got to spend time together for less than the cost of two drinks out at a bar.