‘Shopping’ at McDonald’s vs. shopping at Aldi
BachelorontheCheap.com
Welcome to the inaugural edition of a new weekly feature, where I’ll be posting a fast food meal review, followed by a grocery store shop spending approximately the same amount of money in creating a similar meal. I’ll be looking at fast food pricing, creating copycat recipes, laying out how many meals and snacks can be made with the grocery shop, comparing the time it takes to prepare a meal vs. time spent in the drive-thru, and more.
It’s a Fast Food vs. Grocery Shopping Challenge!
The typical Friday means eating out for a lot of folks, it’s time to unwind after a long work week, and unwinding includes spending a few bucks on some take-out, or the drive-thru.
It’s all too easy to fall into such a routine, but those takeout and drive-thru costs every week can start to add up.
The first contest of this Challenge pits a McDonald’s Big Mac Value Meal against shopping at Aldi for a simple list of burger ingredients, aided by basic staples I already have in my pantry and fridge.
My Friday splurge was a Big Mac Value Meal, which included fries and a Coke for $9.02. I chose McDonald’s for this first Challenge because burgers are pretty much the iconic representation of fast food, and like it or not, McDonald’s is THE top restaurant in fast food both in terms of sales and locations. I also wanted to try the “tasty improvements” Micky D’s made to the Big Mac, you can read that review here.
Burger basics. Spending just $1.34 more at Aldi buys A LOT more food.
So how much can you buy for that kind of money at a grocery store? I went to Aldi to grocery shop. I chose Aldi because they are consistently cheaper than the mainstream grocery store. I focused on purchasing the ingredients I needed to make a burger meal, selecting items I didn’t already have in my pantry and fridge.
Spending $10.36, I bought ground beef, shredded lettuce (no lettuce at home), tater tots (I prefer those over fries), and some buns to complete the burger. Everything else needed to create a burger meal I had at home in my pantry and fridge.
Putting together a burger meal doesn’t take a lot of time, equaling about the same time you spend driving to a fast food restaurant, sitting in the drive-thru, then driving home to eat. The convenience factor, unless it’s a 30-minute lunch break at work, is a wash if you think about it. We all want food that’s quick and delicious. Sometimes fast food delivers on that, but most times, for me anyway, the delicious part comes up short.
Cooking your own burgers allows you to customize the taste as you like it.
In crafting some burgers, I seasoned the ground beef, adding salt, pepper, some minced onion (a nod to McDonald’s), and some Worcestershire sauce. I formed the patties and in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, they went. Here’s where the grocery shop is already ahead, you can do four, 1/4 pound patties, or three, 1/3 patties. That’s a 2-3 more bonus burgers over what the McDonald’s ‘shop’ provides. As the burgers got happy in the frying pan, I brushed some melted garlic butter on the buns, applied sesame seeds to the topper, and put them in the oven for a light toast. Meanwhile, I put together a quick “special sauce,” combining mayonnaise, ketchup, pickle relish, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Some tater tots went in the air fryer and there’s another grocery shop bonus, you get SEVERAL servings of a potato side in buying a bag of frozen taters. In the time that it would have taken me to drive to and from the nearby McDonald’s, I created a very similar meal, that was far more delicious!
Cost Comparison
- Big Mac Value Meal – $9.02, one serving
- Grocery Shopping at Aldi – $10.36, several servings
Kicking an ordinary burger bun up a notch with garlic butter and sesame seeds
In addition to enjoying 3-4 burgers and several future servings of taters coming from a 2-pound bag, I’ve got plenty of shredded lettuce to dress the other burgers as well as enough to create a generously portioned side salad to compliment yet another meal. I’ll have 5 buns left, I can use one to make a lunchmeat sandwich with, another can be the vessel for a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich tomorrow morning, perhaps make some garlic bread with a spaghetti dinner, and if I don’t use the remaining buns in the next couple of days, I can put the rest in the freezer for another day. Spending just $1.34 more than what I shelled out at McDonald’s, I get two more meals and then some!
WAY tastier than McDonald’s!
Does detailing the spending make you rethink the habitual fast food/fast casual spending?
$pend Wisely My Friends…
~ Mike
January 2024 – Bachelor on the Cheap
‘Shopping’ at McDonald’s vs. shopping at Aldi
BachelorontheCheap.com
Welcome to the inaugural edition of a new weekly feature, where I’ll be posting a fast food meal review, followed by a grocery store shop spending approximately the same amount of money in creating a similar meal. I’ll be looking at fast food pricing, creating copycat recipes, laying out how many meals and snacks can be made with the grocery shop, comparing the time it takes to prepare a meal vs. time spent in the drive-thru, and more.
It’s a Fast Food vs. Grocery Shopping Challenge!
The typical Friday means eating out for a lot of folks, it’s time to unwind after a long work week, and unwinding includes spending a few bucks on some take-out, or the drive-thru.
It’s all too easy to fall into such a routine, but those takeout and drive-thru costs every week can start to add up.
The first contest of this Challenge pits a McDonald’s Big Mac Value Meal against shopping at Aldi for a simple list of burger ingredients, aided by basic staples I already have in my pantry and fridge.
My Friday splurge was a Big Mac Value Meal, which included fries and a Coke for $9.02. I chose McDonald’s for this first Challenge because burgers are pretty much the iconic representation of fast food, and like it or not, McDonald’s is THE top restaurant in fast food both in terms of sales and locations. I also wanted to try the “tasty improvements” Micky D’s made to the Big Mac, you can read that review here.
Burger basics. Spending just $1.34 more at Aldi buys A LOT more food.
So how much can you buy for that kind of money at a grocery store? I went to Aldi to grocery shop. I chose Aldi because they are consistently cheaper than the mainstream grocery store. I focused on purchasing the ingredients I needed to make a burger meal, selecting items I didn’t already have in my pantry and fridge.
Spending $10.36, I bought ground beef, shredded lettuce (no lettuce at home), tater tots (I prefer those over fries), and some buns to complete the burger. Everything else needed to create a burger meal I had at home in my pantry and fridge.
Putting together a burger meal doesn’t take a lot of time, equaling about the same time you spend driving to a fast food restaurant, sitting in the drive-thru, then driving home to eat. The convenience factor, unless it’s a 30-minute lunch break at work, is a wash if you think about it. We all want food that’s quick and delicious. Sometimes fast food delivers on that, but most times, for me anyway, the delicious part comes up short.
Cooking your own burgers allows you to customize the taste as you like it.
In crafting some burgers, I seasoned the ground beef, adding salt, pepper, some minced onion (a nod to McDonald’s), and some Worcestershire sauce. I formed the patties and in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, they went. Here’s where the grocery shop is already ahead, you can do four, 1/4 pound patties, or three, 1/3 patties. That’s a 2-3 more bonus burgers over what the McDonald’s ‘shop’ provides. As the burgers got happy in the frying pan, I brushed some melted garlic butter on the buns, applied sesame seeds to the topper, and put them in the oven for a light toast. Meanwhile, I put together a quick “special sauce,” combining mayonnaise, ketchup, pickle relish, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Some tater tots went in the air fryer and there’s another grocery shop bonus, you get SEVERAL servings of a potato side in buying a bag of frozen taters. In the time that it would have taken me to drive to and from the nearby McDonald’s, I created a very similar meal, that was far more delicious!
Cost Comparison
Kicking an ordinary burger bun up a notch with garlic butter and sesame seeds
In addition to enjoying 3-4 burgers and several future servings of taters coming from a 2-pound bag, I’ve got plenty of shredded lettuce to dress the other burgers as well as enough to create a generously portioned side salad to compliment yet another meal. I’ll have 5 buns left, I can use one to make a lunchmeat sandwich with, another can be the vessel for a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich tomorrow morning, perhaps make some garlic bread with a spaghetti dinner, and if I don’t use the remaining buns in the next couple of days, I can put the rest in the freezer for another day. Spending just $1.34 more than what I shelled out at McDonald’s, I get two more meals and then some!
WAY tastier than McDonald’s!
Does detailing the spending make you rethink the habitual fast food/fast casual spending?
$pend Wisely My Friends…
~ Mike