My Coupon Buddy Kim is a savvy shopper. REALLY savvy. When she told me this- it was something I had never thought about!
She went by McDonald’s this morning for breakfast and got a Sausage McGriddle meal and a large sweet tea. The large sweet teas are $1 everyday at McDonalds. (p.s. Warning to my Southern Friends traveling North- when you order a tea in the Northern States they only have UNSWEET so be sure to ask before ordering! I’ve made that mistake only ONCE!)
They charged her 79¢ to up-size her med drink to the large sweet tea. By asking them to ring up the items individually it was actually 50¢ cheaper than buying the meal. Since the Large sweet tea was actually cheaper than the medium drink that comes with the meal she saved some change!
Just goes to show- always do a little math. 50¢ might not seem like much but change adds up! Why pay more than you should? This goes for sit down restaurants too. Many times I’ve found that it’s cheaper to buy the items a la cart rather than buying a full meal. This goes against conventional wisdom about saving money. Most of our phones today have calculators built in- take that 30 seconds and run some numbers. you might be surprised at how much you can save!
that is so true, great point! we absolutely believe in buying items separately! since i have 4 kids, mcdonalds can get pricey. my 8 year old son usually gets a meal, but for the 3 younger kids, i get a 20 piece nugget, priced at $4.99 each. then we get them a large fry ($1.89) to split and use my free drinks from my stockpile at home. the 20 nuggets and large fry combined is $6.88. if i would have ordered the 3 of them individual happy meals that are usually priced between $3 and $4, it would total at least $9 not including tax.
also, check for those mcdonalds coupons that come in the mail! sometimes you get free fries or free drinks, which definitely makes buying separately less expensive.
I do the exact same thing with my 4 kids! And they get water to drink. 🙂
So true! I treated my daughter the other day for breakfast at McDonald’s. I ordered a small sprite and it rang up 1.00 then she ordered a medium drink and it rang up the same price, $1.00. Now, I didn’t really want the larger size but for someone who really does, that might be a better route. Pay the same price but get a larger size! 🙂
Northern McDonalds, Ohio atleast added sweet tea a few yrs ago. The difference in the N is that you have to say sweet tea to get sweet tea!!
In my area there is a McDouble Extra or something like that, which is a Mcdouble ($1 )with lettuce and Tomato for $1.99! Is cheaper to get a reglar Mcdouble and add the Lettuce and Tomato. To me its just being dishonest, like the hashbrowns are now one for $1 because of the Monopoly Game tickets!!
Another way to save. The only difference between a dbl cheeseburger ($1.39) and the McDouble ($1.00) is an extra piece of cheese. Most people won’t care about the little extra cheese, so save the $ and go with the dollar menu!