Host 20 for a Summer Party Under CHF 100

Yes — you can feed 20 guests a full summer spread for under CHF 100, roughly CHF 5 a head. The method: bulk sausages and bread from Aligro or a discounter, big-batch salads and dips made from scratch, homemade iced tea instead of bought soft drinks, and a bring-your-own rule for alcohol. Nobody goes home hungry.

Order the same crowd from a traiteur or a supermarket party service and you pay CHF 12–18 a head — CHF 240 to 360 in total. Building the spread yourself keeps CHF 150 to 250 in your pocket for one afternoon of shopping and a bit of chopping.

How much food do you actually need for 20?

The most common party-budget mistake is over-buying meat and under-buying everything else. Meat is the priciest line on the list, so guessing high there is exactly what turns a CHF 100 plan into a CHF 160 one. Sides, bread and dips are cheap; run short on those and the table feels stingy, so cater them generously.

For a relaxed afternoon grill with 20 adults and a few children, plan on roughly 1.5 grilled sausages per person, two pieces of bread, two fist-sized scoops of salad, a handful of crudités with dip, and about half a litre of drink each. That lands at around 30 sausages, six baguettes or a party loaf, two big bowls of salad, and a couple of dip tubs. Only push the sausage count higher if your crowd is mostly hungry teenagers.

Why Aligro and bulk packs win for a crowd

The economics of catering flip once you cross about 15 people. At that scale, wholesale and bulk formats beat the normal supermarket shelf on nearly every line. Aligro, the cash-and-carry chain used by restaurants and clubs, sells grill sausages, party bread, dip tubs and drinks in catering sizes at prices a standard Coop or Migros shelf cannot match per unit. Our guide to Aligro for a summer party breaks down which trays are worth the trip and which are not.

No Aligro card, or no branch nearby? The hard discounters cover most of the same ground. K-Tipp's 2024 price test put Lidl's 30-item basket cheapest in the country at CHF 162.05, just ahead of Aldi at CHF 166.59, with Coop (CHF 167.82) and Migros (CHF 170.37) behind — and on a broad 100-item basket, Aldi and Lidl run about 12% under Migros. For party staples like crisps, soft drinks, own-brand sauces and paper plates, one discounter run does the job.

The under-CHF-100 menu, course by course

Here is a full spread for 20, priced from bulk and own-brand ranges at Aligro and the discounters. Everything except the fresh vegetables can be bought days ahead. The total lands at CHF 96 for food and soft drinks — alcohol is kept bring-your-own, because it is the single fastest way to double a party budget.

What's the cheapest crowd-pleaser?

The single cheapest crowd-pleaser is the grilled sausage. A Cervelat or a bratwurst tucked into a piece of bread with a smear of mustard costs well under a franc a head, needs no plate or cutlery, and disappears faster than anything else on the table. It is the reason the Swiss summer grill has barely changed in decades: it is cheap, fast and universally liked.

After the meat, the biggest value comes from the sides. A pasta salad stretches 1.5 kg of dry pasta into 20 portions for under CHF 10, and a cabbage coleslaw feeds the same crowd for about CHF 5. Both can be made the day before and taste better for the rest. Our roundup of cheap BBQ sides has more batch-friendly options that cost far less than the meat they sit next to.

How do you keep drinks from blowing the budget?

Drinks are where a CHF 100 party quietly becomes a CHF 200 one. A crate of beer, a few bottles of wine and a stack of bought soft drinks can easily cost more than all the food combined. The fix is not to skip the drinks but to change what you provide and what guests bring.

Serve tap water in jugs with lemon and mint — practically free and genuinely welcome in the heat — and brew a big pot of iced tea from bags, sugar and lemon for a few francs. Keep a couple of six-packs of mineral water cold for anyone who wants bubbles. Then make alcohol bring-your-own: most guests happily turn up with a six-pack or a bottle, and your budget stays intact. The same money-saving logic runs through our guide to hosting an apéro on a budget.

Your shopping plan, step by step

A party shop goes wrong when it turns into three panicked trips. One plan, two runs:

1. Count heads and set the budget first. Twenty guests at CHF 5 a head is your CHF 100 ceiling. Write it down before you shop, not after.
2. Do one bulk run three to four days ahead. Sausages, bread for the freezer, drinks, crisps, condiments and dip tubs from Aligro or a discounter — every non-perishable and anything that freezes.
3. Buy fresh vegetables and bread as late as possible. Salad veg, crudités and fresh loaves the day before or the morning of, so nothing wilts. Watch the week's Aktionen for whatever grill meat is discounted.
4. Prep the sides the day before. Pasta salad, coleslaw and dips all keep overnight and taste better for the rest, leaving the party day for grilling only.
5. Keep meat cold and grill in batches. Bring sausages out in rounds rather than piling the grill; it stays hot, nothing dries out, and you avoid cooking more than the crowd eats.

What does it cost per head — and where does Eini fit?

At CHF 96 for 20 guests, this spread works out to CHF 4.80 a head — less than a single takeaway coffee and a gipfeli. For context, the average Swiss household spends about CHF 636 a month on food and non-alcoholic drinks according to the Federal Statistical Office, so a 20-person party done this way costs less than a sixth of one month's grocery bill.

Scaling a recipe from four portions to 20 is exactly the kind of arithmetic that eats an evening when done by hand. Eini's algorithm does it in seconds: tell it the headcount, and it multiplies every quantity, matches the items to current Aktionen across Coop, Migros, Lidl, Aldi, Denner and Aligro, and builds one combined shopping list you can take to the wholesaler and the discounter. Meal planning and the grocery list are what Eini does today — download it and let the algorithm handle the party maths.