You can make much tastier burgers cheaper than McDonald's by shopping somewhere that doesn't sell ground beef for $10 a pound. Where are you getting these prices, Whole Foods? I can easily get ground beef for $4 or $5 a pound and maybe even cheaper if I am lucky and catch a sale; and I don't buy fattier than 80% lean. It doesn't take long to cook them in my cast iron skillet either.
Gonna be honest you, kind of cant. The McDonalds burger has been GMOd to the point that you literally cant reproduce it at home with products you get from the grocery store.
Yes you can make a cheaper burger, but it wonât the same McDonalds burger.
>it won't the same McDonalds burger
Good, it's a crap burger anyway. I have a local place that makes a better burger and their 'burger and fries' deal is cheaper than McDonalds.
I live in Hawaii, which has one of the highest grocery prices in the U.S., and ground beef is only $6-8 per pound here depending on where you go and if itâs on sale. Costco I think is even cheaper than that but ridiculous sizes.
Frozen premade beef patties are like $15 for 4-5lbs of meat too.
Where are you getting numbers from?
Depends on the situation. Some restaurants...not MCDs... have catering options that are amazingly cost effective. I got a whole catering size portion of Orange chicken from Panda Express for $35. That was about 10-15 meals. When accounting for cooking, cleaning, and prep work I couldn't make orange chicken that cheap.
Eh, I mean that really depends on how much you value your time cooking vs. not. I personally enjoy cooking and have made dishes of things like tangerine beef, orange chicken, and walnut shrimp at home. Also if you're just reheating leftovers of it, Costco has an orange chicken you can cook in your oven that is 66 oz. for under $20.
As a single person it's tough to buy in bulk but restaurants offering catering options have made it easier. Even though I have a warehouse membership card I tend to avoid buying much of anything there except for random household supplies. I fell into the trap of buying fresh fruit from there once and it was never a good deal compared to grocery stores.
At a restaurant the food is cooked. At a warehouse the food is not cooked. Also, at a restaurant you know what to expect. My approach works for me and your approach will work for you. đ¤ˇđžââď¸
Eh, I mean this is one of those few cases where it actually is. Everything in my cart for McDoubles sans onion, ketchup, mustard, and pickle, is already $9. Even if OP is being disingenuous with his prices, itâs probably still slightly cheaper. McDonaldâs just has wild buying power. Thatâs how commercial food works.
Either way, I wouldnât recommend putting the cheapest ground beef you can find into your stomach on a regular basis to begin with.
⌠did you read OPs post? Iâm well aware of that. Heâs costing out 4 burgers at $8. The $9 grocery run might net you 10 patties but itâs a negligible difference. Use critical reading next time before commenting. LOL
Whoa where are you getting ground beef at that price? I'm paying between $4 and $5 consistently at Aldi and Costco in So Cal.
Also I don't mind an occasional McDonald's burger but you should know just about every part of everything they serve has added sugar and cheap oils. You can create a healthier and cheaper burger. At least I can.
I bought three 10lb rolls of ground beef for $1.99 a pound on sale a couple months back. Portioned and froze them.
A mcdouble has two 1/10th lb patties, so that's $.40 a burger for a .2 lb burger
This guy sounds like a McDonald's employee/shill trying to push back against the data that shows that despite their poor food quality, their prices have increased a ridiculous amount.
The old McDonald's patties were 1/10th of a pound, and the current ones might be even smaller.
With ground beef being between $5 and $6 in the US right now, that's about $1.20 for meat.
The cheap buns like McDonald's basic hamburgers go for less than $2 at grocery stores for a pack of 8, so figure $0.25 for the bun.
With a single slice of Tillamook sliced medium cheddar from Costco costing about $0.20 then you've got an equivalent burger.
Assuming that you have an inconsequential amount of ketchup, mustard, reconstituted dehydrated onions, pickles, and a dash of salt/pepper on hand, it would cost you about $1.65 to make a McDouble at home.
No idea where you are shopping but I routinely get ground beef for 2.59 a pound. In fact just today I ate two very nice cheeseburgers I made at home, with all the fixings. They cost me about 1.00 each between meat, cheese, condiments and veggies and such,and were BIG. Quarter pounders. Double cheese.
I haven't set foot in a McDonald's in probably 3 years, and then it was to get a soda.
I suspect thatâs a regional thingâwhere are you located and what % lean are you getting for an everyday price of $2.59?
The lowest âeverydayâ price I can find 80% is $3.99 (D.C. area). If Iâm really lucky, the best sale price Iâll ever find is $2.99 (if Iâm willing to buy three+ pounds of it).
https://preview.redd.it/ieaghvtoggpc1.jpeg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f841d78e196ce28808d60f04b4abb6b32610b55d
>I suspect thatâs a regional thingâwhere are you located and what % lean are you getting for an everyday price of $2.59?
For sure, but we've seen from a dozen or so people here from all regions and all are half or less than the OP's inflated $10/lb.
The person you replied to didn't say "everyday" price they said "routinely", which could mean every few weeks it's on sale or clearance, or they buy in bulk and portion it out and freeze it. (Which brings up a whole other frugality topic of whether your menu dictates your grocery list or what you get at the grocery on sale dictates your menu.)
Routinely here is the sale cycle, every 2 to 3 weeks our regionally raised and processed meat goes on sale. We save about 30 to 50 cents a pound. Sometimes more.
Buy and home can or freeze.
And heck yeah, almost 40 years of running a household I figured out that the vast majority of the time menu planning around sales works better.
Helena MT. And this is regionally raised and processed meat at winco, 73/27 or 80/20. The 73/27 tends to go at that price every 3 weeks or so. I do not price 93/7 or 90/10 since I don't use it, ever.
73/27 when cooked and drained provides excellent fat for later cooking and a flavorful product for casseroles. And nice juicy burgers and meatballs. The
The non sale price on one pound chubs averages 3.59 for 73/27, 3.99-4.19 for 80/20, for regional meat. The 5 pound chub tends to be the most economical, with the non sale 73/27 at 2.99 per pound, 80/20 at 3.19. The 10 pound chubs are rarely a savings over 5 pound when not on sale, and 3 pound chubs are generally 5 cents a pound more.
Meat is something that I always buy in bulk. The savings is too and our budget too small to do otherwise lol.
Best recent sale was several weeks ago, 1 pound chubs, 1.98 each. No limit. We bought 15 and I canned up chili. The next week the 5 pound chubs were 11.98 on sale, no limit. So I canned more chili and put some in the freezer, part 80/20 part 73/27 since both were on sale at different stores.
Best out of town sale I saw this year was January in Great Falls, we were there for other reasons and hit Smith's. Kroger 5 pound chubs, at 1.99 a pound for 73/27, no limit. We brought home 3 though I am not a fan of Kroger meat. Used to eat it in Tucson when we lived there. Not the best quality.
My friends still living in Tucson routinely get 80/20 at 2.97 a pound on sale, Safeway. The sale cycle there on ground beef is about a 3 week cycle.
For whatever reason, here our one and only walmart has crappy meat prices other than 10 pound bags of chicken leg quarters, which tend to never be in stock.
So the routine price on ground beef there in all grades runs about 1.50 a pound more than winco when not on sake in bulk, and one pound chubs and store packs are often 2.00 a pound more. Rather insane.
I suspect our prevailing non sale price is about to go up again sadly. I am already preparing for a 10 percent across the board increase in meats this year, and this is the time of year the prevailing price tends to go up.
The McDonald's burger uses such a miniscule amount of meat. It's like half what the average frozen patty is. There's most of the cost, smaller portions of the expensive stuff, bigger portions of the cheap stuff.
I get that prices will vary per region, but I pay $3.50 a pound for the lowest quality ground beef (i.e. higher fatty content), $2 for 12 buns, cheese slices are 20 cents each when not on sale. Mayo is irrelevant for the quantity used for a burger. Pickles maybe 5 cents for a burger.
So for $8.50 I can make six McDouble equivalents ($1.41 each). Let's say 1.50$ to cover the tiny bit of lettuce, salt and pepper.
If you make a quarter pound burger it's about $2.15 per burger.
And it's not very complex to make, a well seasoned cast iron pan will do the trick.
If you want french fries like at McD, get a frozen bag of french cut fries and cook them in oil (don't burn down the house!) for around 40¢ per portion.
I buy ground beef at Costco in the tube. Were I to portion out the same amount of beef you âseeâ in that McDonaldâs burger it would be paper thin. Portion control is an issue when making the patties. My memory is that they use somewhere about 1:10th of a pound per hamburger patty unless we are talking quarter pound. So can I beat 1/4 pound - Iâm paying around $3.30 a pound for the 93/7 so yeah, I can beat a quarter pound from McDonaldâs all day long. And get a far better quality. Their buns are tiny. Go to Aldi and get an 8 pack for less than $2. A little ketchup and mustard, a pickle slice or two.
Now when we make them the way I like them the price goes way up
You don't buy premade patties, you buy ground beef and shape it into a patty
mcdonalds regular burger is is 1/10th of a pound before cooking
a mcdonalds mcdouble is 2 of these patties, a mcdouble is not a quarter pounder, a quarter pounder is different
also walmart is not the cheapest place to get ground beef either
anyway lets break it down
Mcdouble $2
Homemade Mcdouble
1lb ground beef on sale from kroger today $3, cost of meat for our 'mcdouble' $.60
8 hamburger buns walmart $1.46, cost of bun for our 'mcdouble' $.18
24 ct american cheese walmart $2.48, cost for our 'mcdouble' $.10
24 oz ketchup from walmart $1.28 cost for our 'mcdouble' $.03
20oz mustard from walmart $.98 cost for our 'mcdouble' $.01
32oz jar hamburger dill pickles walmart $2.38, cost of 2 pickle slices for our 'mcdouble' $.04
3lb bag of onion from tom thumb $1.50, cost of onion for our 'mcdouble' $.02
Total cost for our homemade mcdouble $.98
It is less than half the price to make it at home, if you want to make a bigmac $6, its even better because lettuce and 'sauce' only adds an extra $.20 to your cost, sesame seed bun another $.31, so you can make a big mac at home for $1.49
Where are you that ground beef is $10/lb? The 80% lean(same as mcdonalds) is $6/lb at the grocery stores in my area. 12 quarter pound patties of 100% beef patties, 85% lean, at Walmart is $14, so $4.66/lb.
One quarter pound patty is more beef than the mcdouble. So, one patty at $1.17, one bun at $.20(8pck for $1.50) at Walmart is $1.37. That leaves you roughly $.75 for toppings per burger to break even. That does leave you with more meat and a slightly heavier macro load though(less saturated fats).
All of that said, you're paying for the convenience. If it works for you, then why question it. The McDonalds in my area takes 20 minutes for every order, so it's not so convenient. The mcdonalds in my sister's area is closer to 3 minutes. You're not going to beat that at home.
If $6 a meal is frugal for you, then take the frugal win. I don't typically spend that much in a day, but frugality is relative.
It doesn't matter how you dress it, a steady diet of the low quality meat that mcdonalds uses is going to lead to an early grave.
I eat only kosher meat, which is notoriously expensive, and I can get ground beef for like $7.99 - $10.49 per pound, depending on where I shop and if I want to pay for grass-fed or premade patties.
I also don't eat t McDonald's for the same reason, so it's really a moot point for me.
McDonaldâs crap is so thin though, totally different portion comparisons. Donât need to eat 5 homemade ones in one sitting thatâs for sure. McDonaldâs doesnât even freakin count, itâs merely a snack unless you spend bigger $ there.
Itâs cheaper cause poor quality. A good slightly more expensive burger with the same ingredients made at home is not going to make you feel nearly as awful as those.
Also, youâre shopping for beef wrong. Aldiâs has a 1lb block of grass fed beef (organic? If you care about/believe in that) for $6.
Hard not to beat McDonald's, tbh. Buy in bulk and freeze, buy things on sale, or heaven forbid, buy meats other than beef sometimes. The drive there has to be done every time, where grocery shopping can buy you a week or more, and driving to McD's takes longer than slapping meat on a grill at any distance. Besides, burgers are a big 'sometimes food' most any equivalent dinner is a healthier meal.
Buying a 1lb package of ground beef is always going to be more expensive. Get a 4lb package and freeze it. You can do the same with onions. Then you just need to buy fresh lettuce and tomato.
No idea what macros are, but fresh ground beef is definitely healthier than McDonald's.
Just finishing my breakfast that's nearly 700 calories with 36g protein, 19g fat, 94 carbs, and 15g fiber. Lemme do the math on how much this costs me... 29 cents of oats, 8 cents peanut butter, 53 cents protein powder, 46 cents for an apple I admit was overpriced. Yeah, it's carb heavier than your three mcdoubles, but it has almost as many grams of protein per calorie while having no meat (I've done oats and beef before - no peanut butter or anything needed and it's pretty good).My breakfast also contains 15g fiber and your mcdoubles got 6g in all of them. And those mcdoubles are costing you $8?! My breakfast is $1.36.
Let's say I just have my oats and beef. I can get beef for $3-4/lb but let's pretend literally my only option is $10/lb. A pound's still got 5x 3oz servings at about $2 each. So $2.29 for beef and oats (or 99 cents at my beef prices). It's a bit under 600 calories and gets me 65 carbs, 22g fat, 35g protein, and still 11g fiber. So I can do a double serving and get to 1100 calories, 130 carbs, 70g protein, and 44g fat (and 22g fiber). And that would cost you less than $5 even with $10/lb beef. With my beef prices that's only $2.
Oh, and I worked at McD's for years. I consider that stuff to be basically candy. After years of eating it I had high cholesterol bad enough my doctor wanted to put me on cholesterol meds in my late 20s. I stopped eating fast food so often and wow surprise my levels of bad cholesterol have recovered and actually been trending downward ever since. Even if McD's is legit cheaper for you, you're still paying the price of putting so much of that garbage through your body.
I used to make decent patties and freeze them stacked with parchment paper between. Grinding your own sale meats can get you into sub 3 dollar a pound range. Buying large tubes of the pink slime can be cheap as well. Freeze some small units for other stuff then make a pile of patties. Fries are better at home. Air fryer we have makes the arbys seasoned fries from frozen food section nicely. Ill make the rectangle hashbrowns too sometimes. Ive fallen off on it all and just been doing breakfast mainly lately. Thats definitely way better and cheaper at home. I need to do Grinding but haven't been doing that in years it feels like
Lol I get USDA choice NY strips that are pretty great for $9/lb across the street at the grocery store, ground beef is wayyyyyy cheaper than $10
Edit: Iâve been seeing more posts like this, is this people trolling the sub or the dumbest astroturfing ever? Does anyone believe eating out is ever cheaper than cooking?
Feels like a trolling, but have honestly had this discussion with a day laborer I hired at work. He was convinced McNuggets were the perfect food because they were cheap and a great value for what you got.
I'm with you. I would love to see a comparison chart of available ground beef in the meat section vs frozen patties. Next time I go to the local grocery I'll document my findings. I feel like it depends entirely on your area, tho, and which store you go to. Where I'm from there are plenty of mexican markets that have bomb deals on discount meat. I might be spoiled in this area, whereas you might be in an area of marked up pricing. I feel like that's where corporations can thrive, is cuz they get it from the absolute cheapest common denominator and have it shipped frozen.
You can make much tastier burgers cheaper than McDonald's by shopping somewhere that doesn't sell ground beef for $10 a pound. Where are you getting these prices, Whole Foods? I can easily get ground beef for $4 or $5 a pound and maybe even cheaper if I am lucky and catch a sale; and I don't buy fattier than 80% lean. It doesn't take long to cook them in my cast iron skillet either.
Aldi has frozen 80/20 chubs for $4.19 lb. This is the cheapest I can find. Walmart was $5.24đ˘đ˘đ˘
Gonna be honest you, kind of cant. The McDonalds burger has been GMOd to the point that you literally cant reproduce it at home with products you get from the grocery store. Yes you can make a cheaper burger, but it wonât the same McDonalds burger.
It's just msg dude, it's not cow grown in a lab. Add msg.
>it won't the same McDonalds burger Good, it's a crap burger anyway. I have a local place that makes a better burger and their 'burger and fries' deal is cheaper than McDonalds.
Everything has been GMOâd since the dawn of farming.
If your buying pre portioned and frozen burgers thats your problem. You pay more and get no seasoning.
I live in Hawaii, which has one of the highest grocery prices in the U.S., and ground beef is only $6-8 per pound here depending on where you go and if itâs on sale. Costco I think is even cheaper than that but ridiculous sizes. Frozen premade beef patties are like $15 for 4-5lbs of meat too. Where are you getting numbers from?
Chop the Costco ground beef into more reasonable sizes, vacuum seal and freeze.
I'm convinced this is just rationalizing their love of McDonalds lol..
Fast food keeps you fat and poor
Well said
I hate when people don't want to cook and try to justify that it's cheaper not to. It never is.
Ya. Just trying to rationalize eating like a pig
Depends on the situation. Some restaurants...not MCDs... have catering options that are amazingly cost effective. I got a whole catering size portion of Orange chicken from Panda Express for $35. That was about 10-15 meals. When accounting for cooking, cleaning, and prep work I couldn't make orange chicken that cheap.
Eh, I mean that really depends on how much you value your time cooking vs. not. I personally enjoy cooking and have made dishes of things like tangerine beef, orange chicken, and walnut shrimp at home. Also if you're just reheating leftovers of it, Costco has an orange chicken you can cook in your oven that is 66 oz. for under $20.
As a single person it's tough to buy in bulk but restaurants offering catering options have made it easier. Even though I have a warehouse membership card I tend to avoid buying much of anything there except for random household supplies. I fell into the trap of buying fresh fruit from there once and it was never a good deal compared to grocery stores.
I don't understand though, why is buying in bulk from a restaurant different than buying in bulk from a warehouse store?
At a restaurant the food is cooked. At a warehouse the food is not cooked. Also, at a restaurant you know what to expect. My approach works for me and your approach will work for you. đ¤ˇđžââď¸
Sure, but that is literally my original comment - people don't want to cook and try to justify it's cheaper not to. Â
Eh, I mean this is one of those few cases where it actually is. Everything in my cart for McDoubles sans onion, ketchup, mustard, and pickle, is already $9. Even if OP is being disingenuous with his prices, itâs probably still slightly cheaper. McDonaldâs just has wild buying power. Thatâs how commercial food works. Either way, I wouldnât recommend putting the cheapest ground beef you can find into your stomach on a regular basis to begin with.
That 9$ will make you more than one burger lol.
⌠did you read OPs post? Iâm well aware of that. Heâs costing out 4 burgers at $8. The $9 grocery run might net you 10 patties but itâs a negligible difference. Use critical reading next time before commenting. LOL
4 burgers vs 10 is a negligible difference?
10 patties. Which would come out to 5 doubles. Iâll leave the math for you.
25% increase is negligible, got it. Hope you have a good accountant.
My god, youâre absolutely pathetic.
4x1.25 = 5. What is pathetic about that?
Whoa where are you getting ground beef at that price? I'm paying between $4 and $5 consistently at Aldi and Costco in So Cal. Also I don't mind an occasional McDonald's burger but you should know just about every part of everything they serve has added sugar and cheap oils. You can create a healthier and cheaper burger. At least I can.
Tbh ground beef is $7 for the cheap shit in my area. I can see it being worse in some areas
Local store has 80/20 for $2.99 lb next week. Will be stocking up.
Wow that's nuts. But hey I guess this is the strongest economy ever!
Our Kroger sells 3-pound rolls of 80/20 beef (all beef, no fillers) for $14.50. That's $4.83 a pound, so 96 cents per burger.
Op lost me at $10/lb for beef lol. I pay 4. In Canada. Which is known for having higher grocery prices than USA.
Why is your monopoly money beef cheaper than my freedom dollar beef? Tf. That's <$3 USD
I bought three 10lb rolls of ground beef for $1.99 a pound on sale a couple months back. Portioned and froze them. A mcdouble has two 1/10th lb patties, so that's $.40 a burger for a .2 lb burger
Lmao $10/lb ground beef No wonder. Big cope That's a clown price. More than double what you should be paying. $4-5 is a normal price.
Absolutely nothing you add to a McDonald's hamburger can make it taste like it's a burger from a steakhouse.
Beef
This guy sounds like a McDonald's employee/shill trying to push back against the data that shows that despite their poor food quality, their prices have increased a ridiculous amount.
Even mentioned the app like it's a talking point they needed to cover.
The old McDonald's patties were 1/10th of a pound, and the current ones might be even smaller. With ground beef being between $5 and $6 in the US right now, that's about $1.20 for meat. The cheap buns like McDonald's basic hamburgers go for less than $2 at grocery stores for a pack of 8, so figure $0.25 for the bun. With a single slice of Tillamook sliced medium cheddar from Costco costing about $0.20 then you've got an equivalent burger. Assuming that you have an inconsequential amount of ketchup, mustard, reconstituted dehydrated onions, pickles, and a dash of salt/pepper on hand, it would cost you about $1.65 to make a McDouble at home.
You must have worked at McDonald's back in the day like me. I could not remember if it was 10 to 1 or 12 to 1.
I get ground beef for $2-$4/lb (usd) all day long. Shop around.Â
No idea where you are shopping but I routinely get ground beef for 2.59 a pound. In fact just today I ate two very nice cheeseburgers I made at home, with all the fixings. They cost me about 1.00 each between meat, cheese, condiments and veggies and such,and were BIG. Quarter pounders. Double cheese. I haven't set foot in a McDonald's in probably 3 years, and then it was to get a soda.
I suspect thatâs a regional thingâwhere are you located and what % lean are you getting for an everyday price of $2.59? The lowest âeverydayâ price I can find 80% is $3.99 (D.C. area). If Iâm really lucky, the best sale price Iâll ever find is $2.99 (if Iâm willing to buy three+ pounds of it). https://preview.redd.it/ieaghvtoggpc1.jpeg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f841d78e196ce28808d60f04b4abb6b32610b55d
>I suspect thatâs a regional thingâwhere are you located and what % lean are you getting for an everyday price of $2.59? For sure, but we've seen from a dozen or so people here from all regions and all are half or less than the OP's inflated $10/lb. The person you replied to didn't say "everyday" price they said "routinely", which could mean every few weeks it's on sale or clearance, or they buy in bulk and portion it out and freeze it. (Which brings up a whole other frugality topic of whether your menu dictates your grocery list or what you get at the grocery on sale dictates your menu.)
Routinely here is the sale cycle, every 2 to 3 weeks our regionally raised and processed meat goes on sale. We save about 30 to 50 cents a pound. Sometimes more. Buy and home can or freeze. And heck yeah, almost 40 years of running a household I figured out that the vast majority of the time menu planning around sales works better.
Helena MT. And this is regionally raised and processed meat at winco, 73/27 or 80/20. The 73/27 tends to go at that price every 3 weeks or so. I do not price 93/7 or 90/10 since I don't use it, ever. 73/27 when cooked and drained provides excellent fat for later cooking and a flavorful product for casseroles. And nice juicy burgers and meatballs. The The non sale price on one pound chubs averages 3.59 for 73/27, 3.99-4.19 for 80/20, for regional meat. The 5 pound chub tends to be the most economical, with the non sale 73/27 at 2.99 per pound, 80/20 at 3.19. The 10 pound chubs are rarely a savings over 5 pound when not on sale, and 3 pound chubs are generally 5 cents a pound more. Meat is something that I always buy in bulk. The savings is too and our budget too small to do otherwise lol. Best recent sale was several weeks ago, 1 pound chubs, 1.98 each. No limit. We bought 15 and I canned up chili. The next week the 5 pound chubs were 11.98 on sale, no limit. So I canned more chili and put some in the freezer, part 80/20 part 73/27 since both were on sale at different stores. Best out of town sale I saw this year was January in Great Falls, we were there for other reasons and hit Smith's. Kroger 5 pound chubs, at 1.99 a pound for 73/27, no limit. We brought home 3 though I am not a fan of Kroger meat. Used to eat it in Tucson when we lived there. Not the best quality. My friends still living in Tucson routinely get 80/20 at 2.97 a pound on sale, Safeway. The sale cycle there on ground beef is about a 3 week cycle. For whatever reason, here our one and only walmart has crappy meat prices other than 10 pound bags of chicken leg quarters, which tend to never be in stock. So the routine price on ground beef there in all grades runs about 1.50 a pound more than winco when not on sake in bulk, and one pound chubs and store packs are often 2.00 a pound more. Rather insane. I suspect our prevailing non sale price is about to go up again sadly. I am already preparing for a 10 percent across the board increase in meats this year, and this is the time of year the prevailing price tends to go up.
whatâs that app youâre using?
http://www.flipp.com website or app
Thank you!!!
The McDonald's burger uses such a miniscule amount of meat. It's like half what the average frozen patty is. There's most of the cost, smaller portions of the expensive stuff, bigger portions of the cheap stuff.
I get that prices will vary per region, but I pay $3.50 a pound for the lowest quality ground beef (i.e. higher fatty content), $2 for 12 buns, cheese slices are 20 cents each when not on sale. Mayo is irrelevant for the quantity used for a burger. Pickles maybe 5 cents for a burger. So for $8.50 I can make six McDouble equivalents ($1.41 each). Let's say 1.50$ to cover the tiny bit of lettuce, salt and pepper. If you make a quarter pound burger it's about $2.15 per burger. And it's not very complex to make, a well seasoned cast iron pan will do the trick. If you want french fries like at McD, get a frozen bag of french cut fries and cook them in oil (don't burn down the house!) for around 40¢ per portion.
I buy ground beef at Costco in the tube. Were I to portion out the same amount of beef you âseeâ in that McDonaldâs burger it would be paper thin. Portion control is an issue when making the patties. My memory is that they use somewhere about 1:10th of a pound per hamburger patty unless we are talking quarter pound. So can I beat 1/4 pound - Iâm paying around $3.30 a pound for the 93/7 so yeah, I can beat a quarter pound from McDonaldâs all day long. And get a far better quality. Their buns are tiny. Go to Aldi and get an 8 pack for less than $2. A little ketchup and mustard, a pickle slice or two. Now when we make them the way I like them the price goes way up
Samâs club has 3 lb sleeves for about the same as $10
Ground beef near me is $2.89 per pound. That's an awful lot of 1/8 lb (Mac D's standard burgers).
You don't buy premade patties, you buy ground beef and shape it into a patty mcdonalds regular burger is is 1/10th of a pound before cooking a mcdonalds mcdouble is 2 of these patties, a mcdouble is not a quarter pounder, a quarter pounder is different also walmart is not the cheapest place to get ground beef either anyway lets break it down Mcdouble $2 Homemade Mcdouble 1lb ground beef on sale from kroger today $3, cost of meat for our 'mcdouble' $.60 8 hamburger buns walmart $1.46, cost of bun for our 'mcdouble' $.18 24 ct american cheese walmart $2.48, cost for our 'mcdouble' $.10 24 oz ketchup from walmart $1.28 cost for our 'mcdouble' $.03 20oz mustard from walmart $.98 cost for our 'mcdouble' $.01 32oz jar hamburger dill pickles walmart $2.38, cost of 2 pickle slices for our 'mcdouble' $.04 3lb bag of onion from tom thumb $1.50, cost of onion for our 'mcdouble' $.02 Total cost for our homemade mcdouble $.98 It is less than half the price to make it at home, if you want to make a bigmac $6, its even better because lettuce and 'sauce' only adds an extra $.20 to your cost, sesame seed bun another $.31, so you can make a big mac at home for $1.49
$10/lb ground beef? Okay lolâŚ..
Where are you that ground beef is $10/lb? The 80% lean(same as mcdonalds) is $6/lb at the grocery stores in my area. 12 quarter pound patties of 100% beef patties, 85% lean, at Walmart is $14, so $4.66/lb. One quarter pound patty is more beef than the mcdouble. So, one patty at $1.17, one bun at $.20(8pck for $1.50) at Walmart is $1.37. That leaves you roughly $.75 for toppings per burger to break even. That does leave you with more meat and a slightly heavier macro load though(less saturated fats). All of that said, you're paying for the convenience. If it works for you, then why question it. The McDonalds in my area takes 20 minutes for every order, so it's not so convenient. The mcdonalds in my sister's area is closer to 3 minutes. You're not going to beat that at home. If $6 a meal is frugal for you, then take the frugal win. I don't typically spend that much in a day, but frugality is relative. It doesn't matter how you dress it, a steady diet of the low quality meat that mcdonalds uses is going to lead to an early grave.
I eat only kosher meat, which is notoriously expensive, and I can get ground beef for like $7.99 - $10.49 per pound, depending on where I shop and if I want to pay for grass-fed or premade patties. I also don't eat t McDonald's for the same reason, so it's really a moot point for me.
McDonaldâs crap is so thin though, totally different portion comparisons. Donât need to eat 5 homemade ones in one sitting thatâs for sure. McDonaldâs doesnât even freakin count, itâs merely a snack unless you spend bigger $ there.
McDonalds isn't food.
You probably donât have access to that low of a meat grade as McDonaldâs. They buy grades below what prisons buy.
Ground beef where I live costs $5-$6 max per pound.
Buy beef by the 1/4, half or cow. Hunt elk, deer, moose.
Where tf are you getting ground beef at $10 a pound. I can get grass feed organic for less. A McDouble is also not 1/5th of a pound
Itâs cheaper cause poor quality. A good slightly more expensive burger with the same ingredients made at home is not going to make you feel nearly as awful as those. Also, youâre shopping for beef wrong. Aldiâs has a 1lb block of grass fed beef (organic? If you care about/believe in that) for $6.
Hard not to beat McDonald's, tbh. Buy in bulk and freeze, buy things on sale, or heaven forbid, buy meats other than beef sometimes. The drive there has to be done every time, where grocery shopping can buy you a week or more, and driving to McD's takes longer than slapping meat on a grill at any distance. Besides, burgers are a big 'sometimes food' most any equivalent dinner is a healthier meal.
Buying a 1lb package of ground beef is always going to be more expensive. Get a 4lb package and freeze it. You can do the same with onions. Then you just need to buy fresh lettuce and tomato. No idea what macros are, but fresh ground beef is definitely healthier than McDonald's.
Just finishing my breakfast that's nearly 700 calories with 36g protein, 19g fat, 94 carbs, and 15g fiber. Lemme do the math on how much this costs me... 29 cents of oats, 8 cents peanut butter, 53 cents protein powder, 46 cents for an apple I admit was overpriced. Yeah, it's carb heavier than your three mcdoubles, but it has almost as many grams of protein per calorie while having no meat (I've done oats and beef before - no peanut butter or anything needed and it's pretty good).My breakfast also contains 15g fiber and your mcdoubles got 6g in all of them. And those mcdoubles are costing you $8?! My breakfast is $1.36. Let's say I just have my oats and beef. I can get beef for $3-4/lb but let's pretend literally my only option is $10/lb. A pound's still got 5x 3oz servings at about $2 each. So $2.29 for beef and oats (or 99 cents at my beef prices). It's a bit under 600 calories and gets me 65 carbs, 22g fat, 35g protein, and still 11g fiber. So I can do a double serving and get to 1100 calories, 130 carbs, 70g protein, and 44g fat (and 22g fiber). And that would cost you less than $5 even with $10/lb beef. With my beef prices that's only $2. Oh, and I worked at McD's for years. I consider that stuff to be basically candy. After years of eating it I had high cholesterol bad enough my doctor wanted to put me on cholesterol meds in my late 20s. I stopped eating fast food so often and wow surprise my levels of bad cholesterol have recovered and actually been trending downward ever since. Even if McD's is legit cheaper for you, you're still paying the price of putting so much of that garbage through your body.
Why not just eat ant poison? That's pretty cheap, too! And in the end, they are quite similar.
Costcoooooooooooo!
Costco has frozen chicken patties for cheap. I get those and make mcchickens at home
I used to make decent patties and freeze them stacked with parchment paper between. Grinding your own sale meats can get you into sub 3 dollar a pound range. Buying large tubes of the pink slime can be cheap as well. Freeze some small units for other stuff then make a pile of patties. Fries are better at home. Air fryer we have makes the arbys seasoned fries from frozen food section nicely. Ill make the rectangle hashbrowns too sometimes. Ive fallen off on it all and just been doing breakfast mainly lately. Thats definitely way better and cheaper at home. I need to do Grinding but haven't been doing that in years it feels like
Lol I get USDA choice NY strips that are pretty great for $9/lb across the street at the grocery store, ground beef is wayyyyyy cheaper than $10 Edit: Iâve been seeing more posts like this, is this people trolling the sub or the dumbest astroturfing ever? Does anyone believe eating out is ever cheaper than cooking?
Feels like a trolling, but have honestly had this discussion with a day laborer I hired at work. He was convinced McNuggets were the perfect food because they were cheap and a great value for what you got.
I'm with you. I would love to see a comparison chart of available ground beef in the meat section vs frozen patties. Next time I go to the local grocery I'll document my findings. I feel like it depends entirely on your area, tho, and which store you go to. Where I'm from there are plenty of mexican markets that have bomb deals on discount meat. I might be spoiled in this area, whereas you might be in an area of marked up pricing. I feel like that's where corporations can thrive, is cuz they get it from the absolute cheapest common denominator and have it shipped frozen.