Comments on: Is The Value Menu Really A Value? Comparing The Homemade Double Cheeseburger To The McDonald’s $1 Version

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:31:16 +0000

The Best Dollar menu burger is Rally’s / Checkers
you get a burger patty, a slice of tomato, a partial slice of raw white onion, some iceberg lettuce, and some dressing (ketchup and mustard) possibly some mayo (not sure) and I can’t remember if there was a pickle or not. a napkin, a bag, a burger wrapper, and part of the receipt tape. For the price this beat’s anyone else’s dollar burger hands down. How they do this so cheap I haven’t a clue I would stop there all the time, but I don’t care for their fries.
Please someone do a comparison and show what you’d have to do to get the same value at home, as I’d like to try. When adding the time you are not listing the time to drive to the store, but you’d have to drive to rally’s to, so that’s a wash.
how someone is able to shop for all the necessary items in only 2 minutes is beyond me. I’d like to know how to do this. in doing the comparison you don’t need to add necessary hardware you’d have anyway. and keep in mind that rally’s has to pay someone minimum wage per hour. so in some respects they have it harder, while in others like bulk pricing easier.
So are you able to make a burger at home compared to rally’s checkers dressed dollar burger for about the same price?

By: TigerLily

TigerLily — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:21:45 +0000

Also, in the long run, the fast-food, less healthy alternative will come back to “bite” you in the way of healthcare costs related to poor diet such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Great write up!

By: Steve in W MA

Steve in W MA — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 05:54:33 +0000

The Double Stack on the Wendy’s dollar menu pwns the Mcdonald’s dollar menu cheeseburger. Wendy’s has a really tasty mandarin orange cup on the dollar menu too.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:00:04 +0000

“I’d like to meet the guy who can walk into McDonald’s and order 1 double cheeseburger and walk out.”

That is definitely tough. Hubby and I like to hit the Whataburger drive-thru a couple times a month, just because we love the taste of their burgers. To help keep the cost and the calories down we make baked fries at home before going, and bring our reusable bottle from home. It doesn’t really work if you go spontaneously, but since we usually don’t, it works for us.

“I don’t tend to be evangelical about being vegetarian. But maybe the bigger question needs to be whether we should be eating burgers at all. It’s much more costly to our environment to eat beef than it is to eat lower on the food chain. :)”

If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t. I will continue to eat meat, and enjoy it.

By: molly

molly — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:30:39 +0000

i agrre with you im a vegetarian nothing at mcdonalds is real when u made your own hamburgers it was much healthier and i think it probly tasted better

By: Shell

Shell — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:10:14 +0000

When I make burgers for my family, I add oats or fresh bread crumbs. I find it makes the burger more tender and they usually rave about them and ask what I did to the burgers. I just smile and say, “my secret.” It stretches the meat, gives added nutrition (oats). So far, no complaints, only compliments. I also use fresh tomatoes instead of ketchup. We usually have oven baked fries with this.

By: Brittney

Brittney — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:04:07 +0000

Some of you guys saying that home costs like plates, grill (or stove/oven) should be included. THINK ABOUT IT. You will have these things for years and even if you broke down the price per item cooked on the appliance it would only add a few cents. You use a stove, dishwasher, grill thousands of times before you buy a new one, if you use it 1,000 times before it breaks and it costs $1,00 that’s 1 cent per item cooked. Get real here in the long run it will only add a few cents, even if you round up the home-made to $2.00 it still is healthier, and cheaper if you want more items on your burger since most fast food places charge about .50 cents for extra or added item. We all eat out once in a while which is fine, we just need to stop making excuses of why we do. So you like Mcdonalds? Good for you! If someone asks you why didn’t you just make it at home? Say why! “I just was craving Mcdonalds and I like Mcdonalds, so sue me.” We all eat it once in a while, and that’s fine. Just man up and quit trying to use excuses of why you can’t serve your family or yourself a healthy meal. It is exactly like the excuses people make when they don’t want to exercise, the only difference here is that people find the excuses about fast food except-able while with exercise are rarely accepted and the person is told to stop making excuses, or something similar to that.

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:13:52 +0000

I go to McDonald’s (and Wendy’s) for convenience, sure, but when I do so I make sure I order, the cheapest, healthiest items on the menu: yogurt parfait, apple dippers, mandarin oranges, grilled chicken wraps, baked potatoes, chili, etc. I know I pay more for these foods than if I were to pick them up at, say, a grocery store and/or prepare them at home, but the difference is worth it to me.

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:48:15 +0000

I believe Burger King now offers a vegan “burger”. Also, Taco Bell’s Al Fresca menu is great, you can get a chicken taco w. fresh pico de gallo on it, yum. I take them home and add a little fat free sour cream on top.

By: Johnny Dozer

Johnny Dozer — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:31:33 +0000

@Steve LOL Let’s not get too pedantic.

By: steve

steve — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:55:32 +0000

I want to see you make a burger press so they are the exact same size and thickness as the MCD ones, then freeze them first to help get that “Mickie Dee” texture. Maybe add some wheat gluten in to the beef or something to stretch it out, I bet they do at McD’s. Then use a microwave to cook them.

also measure the pickle thickness and custom slice your pickles to the right spec.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:47:44 +0000

Um. No. Saturated fat, the type found in beef is NOT essential to the human diet, but a detriment. Fat is an essential part of a healthy diet, but definitely not fat from animal sources. That is the stuff that hardens in arteries and leads to CAD. The fact is, the only fats that have any positive health benefits are the unsaturated fats, like olive, canola and walnut oil.

By: J

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:35:03 +0000

I’m a little confused…How is the meat with less fat healthier? Dietary fat, especially from beef is essential to the human diet.

By: k2000k

k2000k — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:44:58 +0000

I would go with the homemade burgers, not necessarily because they are healthier, you can make them just as unhealthy at home and as an aside no restaurant is really healthy, but because of the freedom factor. Lastly, don’t use super size me as an accurate illustration of the effects of fast food. There were a lot of things wrong with that documentary when it came to its method, i.e changing more than one variable, 3 examples consumption increase of McDonald’s, method of traveling, and portion control; or having a test subject that couldn’t even finish a big mac without vomiting. It was entertaining, but overblown. Anyways, Trents pictures alone should illustrate why homemade trumps Mike Ds with or without factoring the dozens of ways we could amortize this.

By: Gregory Glouster

Gregory Glouster — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:07:51 +0000

Umm, they make it for you. You have to include that in the price haha. Wow.

By: john

john — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:52:33 +0000

Let’s get a life. The reason why Mickey D’s cheeseburger are 1.06 and smaller than something you can make is because of the labor. It costs 8.00/hr to pay somebody to make these things and they can probably only make about 50-75/hr so you are probably paying 25-30 cents alone for the labor. The contents are probably 60cents and profit might be a nickle to a dime. That’s it.

So if you can make a double cheeseburger for 60cents I’d say go for it, otherwise shut up and enjoy the cheese burger.

By: Aileen

Aileen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:17:17 +0000

1) this is why LA (it was LA, right?) has banned any additional fast food restaurants from being built and they’re adding incentives for grocery stores to build there. For those of you commenting on the effort of going to a fast food restaurant vs going to the grocery store, in some areas of the country, that’s reversed. I have to walk past a dozen+ fast food places to get to one(!) local grocery store, which is hugely overpriced, in my urban neighborhood.
2) Again, regionality… in many urban areas you will find the kind of upscale fast food restaurants you’re talking about, Trent. To the commenter who said that’s what Chipotle is like, I beg to differ. Chipotle’s menu items are so over-salted that they are basically inedible if you aren’t used to them (at least in my neck of the wooods).

By: Linsay

Linsay — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:10:23 +0000

Speaking of hidden costs, what about the cost of gas to get to McDonalds for each meal? The wear and tear on your car? The costs to buy the car? The fuel you waste in the drive-thru at meal times? Much more cost effective to go to the grocery store once per week, than McDonalds several times.

By: James

James — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:15:06 +0000

I do agree the analysis in time is a bit off, but I want to chime in and say it is ridiculous reading into all of the extra costs of propane and grills, etc

Well think about it, if you buy the McD’s burger, you still have gas in the car you paid for, that grill, frying pan, kitchen, apartment or house are still an expense anyway, its not like those items just dont exist as a cost if you dont use them.

At the same time, he calculated his time for just going to the store specifically for these burgers, most people would buy this stuff while being at the store regularly anyway. Going grocery shopping is a necessity, so you buy your meals for the week while you are there. Going to McD’s though is NOT a necessity and really is going out of your way after work, the right way to go is straight home. For the extra 15 minutes you would spend getting through traffic and waiting for your burger is 15 minutes closer to home you can be or if you live less than that home like I do, you may already be making your burger at that point.

By: Jihan

Jihan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:00:05 +0000

Hello, I just wan tot leave a little comment, I hope no one is offended by my opinion on this:

“* your kitchen – You have to wash the dishes, and buy the napkins, buy the plates to begin with. Oh and don’t forget that having a kitchen means you have to buy a house.
* your grill is a huge sunk cost upfront.
* the cost of the propane to heat up your grill
* your dishwasher uses lots of water, electricity, and dish soap (not to mention that you had to buy a dishwasher to begin with)”

^^^^^

1) To eat a burger you don’t always have to wash dishes, you can put it on a napkin basically. I don’t think napkins only apply to this burger online. You’re going to need napkins for other things too, aren’t you? Unless you’re a sloppy person, you’re not going to need more than one napkin. Having a kitchen means you have to have a house? What about people who live in APARTMENTS? Does that mean only people with homes have kitchens? What about McDonalds, they needed a kitchen too.

2) Of course you don’t always have to buy a grill… I think this recipe works on a huge pan too. If it DOES need a grill, you can skip making it.

3) I don’t know how much that’s going to cost, so I cannot argue with it.

4) What if you don’t use a dishwasher? It doesn’t take long to rub a plate with soap and then rinse it off. Not to mention as I said earlier, you don’t have to use a plate.

I just think a lot of people here overexamine the idea. Don’t forget, Trent is also takes time to blog and show you the differences between the McDonalds and home made burger. The homemade one looks a lot more healthy, the only reason why the McDonald’s one is a lot cheaper and takes no time to prepare is because someone else is doing the work for you you and also, it’s a lot more unhealthy. I don’t like burgers that much myself though, but usually, something coming from a fast food restuarant is always deemed unhealthy in many ways.