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

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

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.

“* 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.

I’m a fairly regular reader of your site and recently came across this post. Being a resident of India, where homemade food is still the norm and we’re just starting the war of fast food, I found your article quite fascinating.

I remember when KFC had earlier opened in Delhi, I was perhaps in college, the fascination that I had for the taste of its Zinger Burger.

Since then, we have the MacD and the KFC at every corner, and slowly but steadily, the meals there have lost their shine.

These days, when I crave for a burger, I just throw some marinated chicken onto the grill for a quick spicy tikka, put it between a bun with a slice of pickle, and some mint mayonnaise.

Its delicious and both I and my husband prefer it infintely to the flat and plastic tasting fast food.

I would recommend you to try some Indian snack recipes, given how much you love cooking. If you’ve ever had Indian food at a restaurant, believe me, what we eat at home everyday doesnt taste like that at all. Its much healthier, simpler and easier to prepare.

Cheers!

Would love a grill but unfortunately I live in an apartment.

I do admit that McDo can do it cheaper and faster but when I do my own cooking I often use partially organic ingredients which improves the quality of the food (and the price).

The few times I’ve tried to buy healthy food, I’ve ended up throwing out more than triple the amount I’ve actually eaten. Who can eat a whole watermelon before it goes off? or even a pineapple?

I still maintain, [and I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately, trying to reduce my bills in general] that cooking at home just doesn’t work unless you’re cooking for a small tribe.

One thing I would like to point out is that a better way to calculate the cost per burger would be to take, say, the pickles. It was $2.49 for the jar. How many servings in the jar? Divide $2.49 by the amount of servings and put that in a “cost per burger” equation. Same for each ingredient. That way you get a true cost instead of “$9 makes five burgers plus a whole bunch of leftover stuff.” If it’s worth it to you. Amy Dacyczyn would do it that way, you know! LOL. Thanks for a thought-provoking post, as usual.

There is no need to eat a burger every day either. Eat it once a week. All the ingredients will keep for a month or more in the freezer or fridge. Make other healthy and even cheaper food at home the other days of the week.