Homemade Meat & Cheese Tray

One of the ways I save a little money on Addy's birthday party was to make my own meat & cheese tray.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I nearly fell on the floor when I was quoted the price on a meat & cheese tray.  One store quoted $39.99 for their smallest tray.  That is completely fine if you have a larger budget, but for me, I figured I had the time to make my own and save me some money.

How much money did it save exactly??

Store Tray:
8 oz Ham
8 oz Turkey Breast
8 oz Salami
8 oz Cheddar
8 oz Swiss
8 oz Havarti
Olive Center
Total: $39.99

My tray:
12 oz Ham - $3.74
12 oz Turkey Breast - $4.77
12 oz Roast Beef - $4.77
12 oz Beef Summer Sausage - $1.99
8 oz Cheddar - $1.99
8 oz Havarti - $1.99
8 oz Muenster - $1.99
Olive Center - $.74
Total: $21.98

I saved $18 AND got 24oz more meat!

I asked the deli to slice the meat thick enough that I could easily roll it for my own meat tray.  Then when I got home I rolled each slice up and cut it into thirds.  I stored the meat, so I could arrange it the next day.

I went with summer sausage instead of salami because this whole packages was $1.99 at Grocery Outlet.  I was hoping to hit the cheese goldmine at Grocery Outlet, but Safeway was having a sale for 8oz packages of sliced Lucerne cheese for $1.99 each!! Cheaper than deli prices and grocery outlet prices!

I will admit, it is not as beautiful as a store bought meat/cheese tray.  But it wasn't ugly... and it saved me lots of money.  For the amount of people we fed we would have likely needed the larger tray which is probably $10-$20 more, so I probably actually save closer to $30.

Preparing the meat/cheese and tray itself took approximately 25 minutes.