BUDGET CHARCUTERIE BOARD | How to make a beautiful and cheap graze board

Now if you've ever made a charcuterie board, you know how expensive they can get. So in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how I made this beautiful charcuterie board for just under $30. Now if you're new here, make sure to hit that subscribe button down below. And as usual, I'll be sharing all the timestamps of everything I'll be doing in this video down below in the description. I'll also be listing all the links for all the items I'll be purchasing as well. So with that said, let's head over to one of my favorite places to buy charcuterie. And if you guessed Aldi, that is correct. Aldi honestly has such a great assortment of cheeses and meats and just everything you need for a beautiful charcuterie board on a budget. So I'm going to start off with my fruits and I'm going to pick up some fresh blackberries as well as some green grapes, both priced at $1.99, leaving us at $3.98. And of course, if red grapes are more your style, you can always opt for those instead. Next, we're going to head over to the meats where I'm going to pick up this deli selection for just $4.49, which leaves us at a total of $8.47. And then I'm also going to pick up some of this jamon serrano as well as some soppressata, both priced at $2.79, leaving us at $14.05. And now that we're good on meats, we're going to head over to the cheeses where I'm going to pick up some of this white cheddar for $2.65. And then I'm also picking up some of this blue cheese and this brie right here that are both priced at $2.99, which leave us still under our budget at $22.68. Next up, I'm going to pick up these manzanilla pimento stuffed olives for just $0.99, which is honestly amazing. And that takes our total up to $23.67. And now to add some chocolate because, well, it's delicious, honestly. It's priced at $1.39, leaving us at $25.06. And for the last items, I'm going to pick up these crackers for just $2.29 and two packs of pistachios that are each priced at $1.19, leaving us with a grand total of $29.73, which is under our budget of $30. And now that we have everything we need, it is time to start making our board. Okay, so now for our board, I'm going to get started with a 17-inch cutting board and this brie that we purchased at Aldi. And I'm going to cut this brie eight times, giving me 16 wedges in total. Now every now and then, brie does tend to get a little bit sticky as you're cutting it, like mine did here. So I really used my hand to help me remove the knife each time that I cut into the brie. And after every cut, I like to turn my brie just to make sure I get a nice, straight, and clean cut every time. Once you've made your eight cuts and you have your 16 wedges, from here I'm going to use my knife to just separate each wedge and then begin to lay them out in a circle on the board. Now I have to say guys, even when I'm not making a budget-friendly board, I pretty much always head over to Aldi to buy my brie just because it is so affordable and honestly great quality for the price. I am a huge brie fan. I think it's a staple for every charcuterie board. There is always someone in the room who loves brie. And overall, it's just a very popular cheese to include on a charcuterie board, which is why I think it's perfect for this budget-friendly board. And once you pretty much have a good circle and you like the placement of them, now I'm just going to begin to turn them all on their side and make sure that they're just slightly overlapping to kind of give it that beautiful layered effect in a circle. I love this technique because honestly, it looks a lot harder than it is. It's a great way to just level up the look of your brie on your charcuterie board. And once you've added all the wedges, you'll kind of play around with it to make sure that you have the shape that you'd like and that it all looks cohesive. And you'll notice as you begin to layer them out that the circle does get bigger than the initial size of the brie. So you might have a small circle in the center just like mine, and that's completely fine because I will show you how we cover that later. Next up, we're going to add this blue cheese that we purchased at Aldi as well. And all I'm going to do is pretty much just lay it out flat on the board. And I'm just going to use a fork to crumble the front of the cheese, which I think will add a really nice texture to the board as well. Now I know blue cheese is definitely not for everyone, so you can feel free to use any other cheese that is in the same price range to keep the board within the same budget. Some other really great options that are within the same price range are their Havarti cheeses that are also $2.99, as well as their cranberry cheddar cheese. And they even have a sliced mozzarella for $2.39. Next up, I'm going to jump right into our meats. So I'm going to take this soppressata. And what we're going to do is make a rose out of this. Now I like to use a simple method to make this rose. So I'm going to lay out five slices of the soppressata into a perfect line. And then from there, I'm going to fold it in half. And when you fold it in half, you're going to want to make sure it's nice and tight because from there, we're actually just going to roll this into the rose. And you can use medium pressure as you're rolling the rose, just ensuring that it's nice and snug and holding together. And then I'm going to grab another slice, fold that in half, and place that right around the rose to add for some extra petals to complete the rose. And I'm going to use all the leftover slices of soppressata to continue adding petals around the rose, making for a nice big rose. Now as you're adding each petal, you'll want to make sure that you are overlapping each side of the petal with one another. This will help make it look a little more organic and more like a rose. Now I know some people like to use the TikTok method to make their rose, which leaves you with a little bit more of an open rose. This is a little bit more of a closed rose. I tend to gravitate more towards this type of rose. But feel free to do whichever method is easiest for you and whichever look you prefer most. And now that my rose is complete, I'm just going to place it right here on the board. And I did want to mention that if you find that you want your rose to stay a little bit more secure, you can always grab a toothpick and put it right through the rose in the areas where the petals are overlapping. And you'll basically place another toothpick through the rose on the opposite end, crisscrossing them. And that'll just help keep it nice and secure. Now in this case, I think it will do just fine, so I won't be using that. But it is definitely helpful if you are making a lot of roses. Now I'm going to move on to my next meat, so I'm pulling out this deli selection. And we are going to get started with our hot calabrese. And from here, what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab one piece and I'm just going to fold that right in half and then fold it in half again. And then I'm just going to continue to do the same thing to all the rest of the slices. And we are just going to put those right on top of each other, because we are actually going to place these in a line on the board. Now this is another super easy technique that you can add to any board that looks really nice and put together, but is so easy to do. And now that I've folded all the slices, now I'm just going to place this right here on the right hand side of the board. And that looks perfect. Now before I move on to my next meat, I'm actually going to take out two of these ramekins that I'll be using to place honey and our olives onto our board. I'm just going to place these right where I want them so I can begin to add my meat surrounding these areas. And for the next meat I'm going to grab the hot capicolo and I'm just going to fold this exactly the same way as I did the calabrese. And I'm going to place them right in between my blue cheese and the square ramekin that we'll be pouring our olives into. And I'm just going to continue to fold all the slices until I have used them all. From here I'm going to set aside the last meat in this deli selection and I'm going to take out my white cheddar cheese and just begin slicing it. And what I want to do is scatter this cheese all around the board in different ways. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to cut these squares in half so that I'm left with rectangles and I'm going to crisscross these and place them along the right side of my board. And I'm just going to cut enough rectangles so that this entire right hand portion is completely covered and it looks nice and seamless and there aren't any empty spaces in between any of the cheese or the meats. Next I'm going to cut some more slices and I'm just going to layer these around the board for more of a simple look. And I'm just going to place about four or five in each of these areas. I'm going to place the first four here on the top and then I'm going to place four more here on the bottom. Now for the rest of this cheddar cheese I'm going to begin cutting more slices and what I'm going to do is cut a triangle out of each of these slices. Now when you cut a perfect triangle out of each slice you're actually going to be left with one wide triangle and two narrow triangles. So I'm going to go ahead and cut enough slices and triangles until all the cheese is cut and then from there I'm going to grab my two narrow triangles and I'm going to crisscross them and place them on the left side of the board. And similar to the right side you're going to want to make sure that the cheese is overlapping and that we're completely filling up that left hand side. And once that looks good to go we are just going to leave our larger triangles there for later and then we're going to take out our jamon serrano and we're going to create these little fans out of the ham. So what you're going to do is grab a slice and fold it in half. From here I'm just going to fold it back and forth while making sure that I'm constantly pinching the bottom so that it starts to look like a fan. Now I do normally like to use prosciutto for this and it actually has the same price point as this ham however they didn't have it at Aldi when I went so if you can't get your hands on some prosciutto this is definitely the next best thing. Just keep in mind that it will taste slightly different from prosciutto and it isn't quite as soft. And from here I'm going to fold all of the slices and place them on the board. And as I mentioned since the texture of this ham is a little more sturdy make sure you apply some pressure as you're folding the ham. Next up we are going to add the green grapes that we purchased and I'm going to flip the grapes over and try to hide the stems so the main focus is on the bright green color of the grapes. Next up I'm going to grab our pita chips and then I'm going to try to put together chips of the same size so that they look organized and cohesive when I place them onto the board. I'm going to place them right above the spree and then I'm going to add some more right down here next to the grapes. Next I'm going to add my dark chocolate. Now to make sure that my chocolate breaks into perfect squares I'm just going to use my knife to go ahead and cut those squares and then layer them out in a couple areas on the board. Now I really love to add dark chocolate to my boards just because it adds a nice differentiation of color. So I recommend adding them in areas where you just kind of want to break up the color or just break up the scene in that area. It's such an easy thing to add and adds such a nice touch to any board. And then we're also going to add some blackberries to this board as well to give it some texture and some more depth. So I'm going to drop some berries right in the center of our brie to cover up that hole which offers a nice contrast on the brie and then I'm also going to toss them on top of the grapes to add some fun texture in there. And next we're going to add some pistachios. Now pistachios are always a really great option for a nut. They're a little fancier and always get devoured. You can use them to fill up any small areas you have. And now it's time to add our olives. So I'm just going to open up this jar and just pour them right into the ramekin. And that looks nice and full. And now I'm going to go back in with my grapes because I feel like this little area would be perfect to add some more grapes. Once again trying to hide the stem so that the focus can be on the grapes. And since we have this small little hole I'm going to grab my second bag of pistachios and fill up that little area. And to finish up my last meat I'm going to make one more salami rose but this one is going to be a little bit smaller. So I'm going to grab four pieces of salami and I'm going to line them right up. I'm going to fold all four in half just like we did with the other rose. And then I'm going to roll that tightly. And to complete the rose I'm going to use my last three pieces of salami and fold them each in half adding each of them as a petal to the rose. And our rose is complete so I'm going to place it in this upper right corner that is currently empty. Now I'm going to grab my wider triangles that we had set aside earlier and I'm just going to crisscross these in this small little area. And then to break up the colors I'm just going to top that with some blackberries. And for the final addition to our board I'm going to grab some honey that I have on hand and pour it into this ramekin and top that with this adorable honey dipper that goes perfectly with our brie. I got this super inexpensive honey dipper on Amazon and I'll definitely make sure to link it down below. And there you have it guys, a beautiful charcuterie board for under $30. Now if this video was super helpful to you, you are definitely going to want to check out some of my other seasonal charcuterie board videos. Now if you love this video, make sure to list in the comments any other topics you'd love to see regarding charcuterie boards and I would love to incorporate them in my next upcoming videos. And with that said, I will catch you in the next video. Bye!