catering 50 people under $100?

I've catered a party for a 400 dollars and it fed 150 people. I had a lot of different options: chicken shanghai noodles, shrimp stirfry, meatballs, garden salad, greek salad, cheese and crackers, tuna and egg salad sandwiches, chicken skewers, greek style potatoes, hummos dip and pita, pasta salad, vegetable rice, french bread, spinach and feta triangles, meat pies, fruit and veggie platters. It took A LOT of time and I got a lot of the food on sale (chicken, meat...etc) it took a lot of planning and looking through flyers for good deals for about 1 month. I've also done a party for 35 people for 250 with all the same items, just added perogies and a few other items. I don't think 100 is doable.

Could you do like a "potluck" kind of thing? That's what my parents did and there was tons of food. Or just designate entree's and sides to certain people that can help you. We got pretty lucky with our catering, great awesome food for $13.00 a person, and that was the cheapest we saw. You're looking at $2 a person at the LEAST.

Not likely. At least not a full meal. Even doing it yourself. I'm self catering 150 people and I'm looking at $4/pp with couponing. Minus cake. With cake...like 5-6?

Seems rough but what if you got a lot of chicken and lots of pasta? Go for one of those $10 for 10 deals. Pasta is super cheap & very filling. I don't think you'd have much left over for drinks though.

This is just an idea,but why don't you push the wedding back or cut the guest list in order to have a "nice" wedding. Mine is not super "fancy" but we have the essentials. I'm not all about asking people, but maybe moms and aunts can bring a salad and you guys can serve sandwiches and cake. Maybe even make the cupcakes at home and make your own little wedding cake.

In this situation I would recommend an appetizer buffet. One bride did a taco bar and it sounded delicious. You can buy quality ingredients wholesale to save money, but you will probably still need to raise your budget. Also you can do heavy appetizers and cake. 100 wont be enough for a dinner. You need at least 8 pp. For my wedding 60 people I paid 30 per person and got catered buffet for a total around 2k. I paid for drink service and they cut the cakes for me.

You could do tacos or pasta for this.

My last wedding, I spent $180 for 35 people and had sides and steak shrimp and chicken kabobs.

So it can be done, but you have to be exact on your numbers and your budget. Go $150 and you could do pork chops, chicken legs(baked for both), a couple sides and salad.

I shopped today and got 14 small pork chops for $9.52 and a dozen drumsticks for $5.96 so yes, it can be done. I think your issue will be more storage and food safety. If you want message me. That $180 up there included brownies, cookies, and candy buffet. Another $65 and I had a very good buttercream single layer from the grocery store with fresh strawberries inside and huge chocolate covered strawberries on the top, along with chocolate shavings, and our initials in the chocolate stuff that hardens.

You have got to be joking? $100 for 50 people? Girl, I could. It do dinner for four people at my house for $100.

Its totally doable...I do events baby showers/anniversary parties things along that nature all the time for less...find someone worth imagination/heart/and a Sam's Club card/Costco card and start looking up recipes for families on budgets and then increase until you feed the desired #...you can create your own dessert bar with.homemade cake mix/cookie dough and done wonderful candy add ins...we did a baby shower for 40 people with rolls ($4.00 for 34 from Sam's)...a crock pot of turkey/gravy (deli style about 10lbs)..corn (bulk/economy cans from the store) and homemade mash potatoes..(2.99 a bag at the most)....just have a positive/can do attitude and it will work itself out...maybe someone else can provide desserts/beverages....good luck

Okay, funniest comment of the night. "Homemade mash potatoes (2.99 a bag...)"

That should be mashed potatoes and if they come from a bag, they are not homemade.

$100 for 50 people, no way.

I was just coming on here to say if they come out of a bag they are not homemade but Kathy beat me to it!

Seriously though.. I can't even feed myself and FH for 2 bucks a person. I don't know how someone would ever manage that.

*edited bc I'm on my phone and it "corrected" a word it shouldn't have.

Probably not. But I agree with some of the others that are saying it can be done for a couple hundred dollars.

As for the last few comments about the mashed potatoes, I think she was saying its that much for a bag of potatoes. Not a bag of mashed potato mix. Just saying.

*Edited for grammar.

Ohh hey Kathy R.?

Ummm yeah about your comment on homemade, in case you aren't aware, homemade DOES come from a bag. The fake sh!t comes from a BOX.

And for $2.99/bag, OP you can get PLENTY of mashed potatoes. Seriously, I only need 3 taters to make mashed for 4 people. At any rate. There's 20 in a bag if you look through real well ;-)

Cheetah <3

Finallydoingit, I know it was catty, but unless you're picking them from a garden, they're coming from a produce bag ;-)

Lol yeah my potatoes come in a bag. Even if I select them individually, they are still going in a plastic bag.

Sorry, I don't think it's possible on $100. If you cut your list in half and self cater you can probably get away with $400-$500, and depending on what you serve it could be less.

As a suggestion, you should make a list of somethings you would like to make and price out the ingredients you need. Plan to make a batch, calculate the cost of the ingredients, and then multiple until you get the right number of serving. That should give an estimate of cost for you.

This is an extremely petty and off topic argument, but the phrase "bag of homemade mashed potatoes" does imply that they were bought already fully prepared by the manufacturer. I don't think she was referring to a product bag full of raw potatoes.

And yes, OP, you will need more than $100 to feed 50-60 people, unless you're feeding them Ramen and saltines.

Sorry..I live in WI and our produce is sold in bags if they are potatoes ..sold from Iowa...maybe they dont do that where all the ladies live but thats the beauty of living in the Midwest...I also got 5lbs of turnips greens for $3 from the farmers market last week when I hosted a family dinner for 7...instead of being catty maybe someone could contribute to your budget...this is a forum for solutions not peoples personal opinions....you could try local farmers markets depending on where you are from and get a great discount on seasonal produce...just takes a little imagination and some true planning

Oh, ha ha ha, I get it. Real potatoes in a plastic bag. My mind went to some frozen bag of pre-made mashed potatoes.

Guess that shows you that when I buy potatoes, it is one or two at a time. I forgot that some stores actually have big bags too. :-)