I recreated a Quarter Pounder with Cheese to See if Fast Food is Cheaper Than Eating at Home.
The Home Kitchen vs The Drive-Thru
I have heard the argument that some people can’t eat healthy because they can only afford fast food. I wanted to see how true this statement was, if at all so I recreated a McDonald’s meal at home.
The closest McDonald’s to my house charges:
Quarter Pounder with Cheese: $7.59 + tax $0.80 = $8.39
Medium Fries: $4.89 + tax $0.52 = $5.41
Total: $13.80.
I went to QFC (the local grocery store) by my house, not a particularly expensive or cheap grocery store. The items I got were a mix of generic, name brand and I bought items on sale when I could. I got a particularly good deal on ground beef. It was all bought on one trip without any previous planning so it should represent a price anyone should be able to buy these items for. I also leave in Seattle which has a high cost of living, so many people will be able to make this for even less. The cost of the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder would also likely be cheaper in other cities.
I’m recreating the burger as close as I can, measuring out a quarter pound of beef, 2 slices of American Cheese, 1 sesame seed bun, 2 pickles, some onion, and ketchup and mustard. (I’m actually leaving the ketchup off because I don’t like ketchup but I’m still factoring it into the cost, calculating the same amount as I used mustard) I also added salt and pepper to the patty which I’m not including in the total because the price of those are negligible.
Now comes lots of math for me, but I will save you the headache of reading it all, but basically I’m breaking everything down to it’s actual cost. For instance a package of sesame seed buns cost $3.79, there are 8 buns in a package so each bun costs $0.47,
That gives us:
Sesame Seed Bun: $0.47
2 pickles: $0.32
2 Kraft Singles: $0.50
1/4 Pound Ground Beef (85%): $0.90
12 Grams of Onion: $0.04
11 Grams of Mustard: $0.10
11 Grams of Ketchup: $0.11
Which gives us a total of $2.44 for a home made Quarter Pound with Cheese.
Assuming one potato equals one medium fries we get a total of $0.94 for the french fries, not including oil which is reusable.
So the totals are:
Mcdonalds: $13.80
Home Made: $3.38
I was actually pretty surprised by how close my Quarter Pounder tasted to the original. I will admit my fries aren’t quite as good as McDonalds, but they are pretty good. I cut the potato with my mandolin which has a fries setting and deep fried them in coconut oil. I cook them for about 2-3 minutes at 350 degrees, take them out until the burger is ready and put them back in for another couple minutes when the burger is done. They come out nice and crispy this way.
So it turns out eating at fast food is actually much more expensive, and probably not as healthy.
Here is the final product:
