to think McDonalds is expensive?

[TingTradition]

I mean great for a quick, cheap on-the-move treat .

But you get a tiny bit of meat with your burger and unless you stuff yourself with chips and ice-cream on top, are hungry 30 minutes later.

I've just made a delicious huge burger for lunch at home, with lovely seedy bun and big salad, probably for less than £1. [NoMrWhippyThough ]

It's expensive and crap.

Oldlaundbooth, where can you eat out that's cheaper?

Nobody is saying it's health food!

Whatever you do, avoid the BK in the motorway station outside Carlisle. It is the rankest, nastiest BK in the entire UK including Greenock.

It didn't cost you a quid to make your huge burger. No matter how cheaply you bought the ingredients you had to cook it, electric/gas, you'll have had to wash up afterwards, water isn't free neither is washing up juice. And if you have a dishwasher it blows your quid right out of the water. Plus you had the faff of having to make it etc.

Don't get me wrong, I know where you're coming from but surely the whole point of McDonalds is so you don't have to bother with all that.

It's a quick bite on the go for a lot of people.

I agree OP! If we go as a family I get very little change from a £20 note, and we're all starving an hour later.

I prefer either KFC or Dominos now, both much more filling and about the same price (with a code for Dominos of course, otherwise it's £££ )

and what did your gas electric cost to cook your burger?

I don't think it's expensive at all and I find it very filling. Sometimes I can't even finish my meal if I get a milkshake with it. Homemade food is always going to be cheaper and nicer, you can't compare it to that.

I've just made a delicious huge burger for lunch at home, with lovely seedy bun and big salad, probably for less than £1

Unless your idea of a 'huge burger' is very small or you used very rubbishy mince, that didn't cost under £1. Of course eating out is more expensive than eating at home. Even the cheapest ready made sandwiches at £1/£1.50 are expensive if you compare with home made.

But for eating out, and getting hot food, McDonalds is pretty much the cheapest option. I don't like Big Macs, which is annoying for the £1.99 Big Mac and fries deal, but I'm full before I get to the end of my preferred meal which is a fish fillet and medium fries and it keeps me going until the next meal time, none of this 'hungry half an hour later' here.

I'd avoid BK at all Motorway Service Stations. Fucking extortionate and at least twice the price of McDonalds.

YANBU for a family 4 for sure.
It is WAY cheaper to cook at home. I make a HUGE beautiful salad 3 romaine hearts, one big cucumber, 2 tomatoes, half an onion, small chunk of feta for less than $10. Plus 12 pieces of big baked drumsticks and some boiled potatoes. All this for $20 with leftover for DH's lunch next day.

Healthy and cheap. Never understood why people say fast food is cheaper than home cooked meals.

Although someone once pointed out to me that fast food is cheaper for poor people because maybe not everyone has pots and pans, much less an oven.

Maybe they aren't all the same, I'm amazed that anyone could think they serve generous portions.

All McDonalds are the same in terms of portion sizes.

McDonald's is cheap! Two adults and two happy meals for about £12. Can't get a sandwich for all of us for that in most places.

Definitely not hungry half an hour later either!

And I definitely can't make a huge nice burger for £1.

McDonalds does seem expensive with my teenage DSs!

Personally, I struggle to find anything to eat there because I don't like either the burgers or the chicken they use, so it's usually a really cheap meal for me .

The kids all love it though. I love BK & KFC.

YABU to expect a homemade meal to cost the same or more than something you pay for in a (albeit fast food) restaurant that has to pay overheads, staff costs in addition to the ingredients.

Absolutely shocked and appalled by this thread. I can't believe the amount of mumsnetters who have even cast their eyes in the same direction as a McDonald's. Won't anyone think of the children!

Don't worry Red, I refer myself to social services after each and every visit to a fast food place.

alltouchedout Thank goodness, that's very reassuring.

It's dirt cheap and when I have it, I'm not hungry until my next meal time which is what you expect from a meal I guess.

misshelena, has anyone here said it is cheaper than home cooked food?

Try getting a restaurant version of your home cooked food for the price of a McDonalds....

I often have a happy meal. It's plenty enough for me. I'm not hungry again for good few hours.

Penny WIBU to expect you to read the OP before calling me out?

Nevermind, here below is part the OP which can be found at the top of the thread:

I've just made a delicious huge burger for lunch at home, with lovely seedy bun and big salad, probably for less than £1.

Expensive? Where else can you get an adult sized burger, chips and drinks for £4?
Ever been to Blackburn?
That would be an expensive meal on Darwen Street!!
It was in the Guardian and dubbed the Takeaway capital!

I was thinking the other day how cheap it is! A double cheeseburger for £1.29 I think, where else can you eat out that cheaply?

YANBU, it's expensive. We took ds2 there for lunch at the weekend. DH and I didn't eat (only a cup of tea each), ds2 had a wrap, chips and a drink and it came to iirc something like £12.

If we go to our local (v. good) chippy, we can get 2 family sized chips, 2 x large haddock, 4 x mushy peas (or curry sauce/beans/gravy etc), a 2 litre bottle of pop and 2 sausages or fishcakes for £13.

If we go to the local chippy, we can't finish what we've bought between four of us. At MaccyD for the same price it feeds a medium sized child and in half an hour he's hungry again.

@misshelena, correct me if I'm wrong, but op doesn't seem to be saying it's cheaper than home cooked food. The opposite in fact...