Do you remember when getting fast food used to be an affordable treat and not a physically and financially shame-inducing spiral from which you’ll never recover? No?
After you come home from an exhausting day at work, the house is all out of order, your kids are clamoring to eat and you do not feel like cooking, the last thing you want to hear is, “We have food at home.”
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Technically, what you have at home are probably ingredients, so it’s best not to split hairs and save yourself a potential argument by suggesting to your tired spouse that they whip up a meal. Though not always the case, it still can be cheaper to eat out rather than going to the grocery store and playing tariff roulette with your produce.
With that in mind, GOBankingRates put together a list of the top five fast-food meals that are cheaper than grocery shopping. Order up!
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No. 5: Your Money Moves Could Be on a Roll
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McDonald’s McChicken Value Meal
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Price: $5
You shouldn’t play chicken with your monthly expenses, and with the McDonald’s McChicken value meal, you get a McChicken, four-piece Chicken McNuggets, a small French fry and a small soft drink. When you factor in what you would spend on a chicken breast (plus more for nuggets), a head of lettuce, burger buns, mayonnaise, potatoes and soda at the grocery store, you probably started pulling into the drive-thru marked with Golden Arches before you finished reading this sentence.
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No. 4: You Should Never Taco-bout Finances
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Taco Bell’s Classic Luxe Box
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Price: $5
If every time you go to the grocery store, you have to dip into your children’s college fund, then maybe you should subsidize with the occasional Taco Tuesday for family night. For $20, you can feed your family of four with this Taco Bell combo meal, which includes a Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, crunchy taco, cinnamon twists and a medium fountain drink. Antacid is sold separately, but you may not need it to settle your system when you see how much money you saved.
No. 3: You Don’t Have to Sacri-fries Flavor
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Wendy’s Biggie Bag
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Price: $5
Gone may be the days of Wendy’s locations having a sun room you could smoke in while you appreciated nature, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t offer some nostalgic pricing for some items on their menu. For just $5 a pop, you can get the Biggie Bag at Wendy’s, which includes a choice of sandwich (Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, Double Stack or Crispy Chicken), 4-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink.
No. 2: It’s OK Guac, I’m Extra Too
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Chipotle Burrito
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Price: $11.65 to $12.45
Chipotle may not be the first fast-food option you think of when it comes to savings, but when you factor in its portion sizes for baby-sized burritos or the many influencer cheat codes to multiply how many meals you can get out of your order, the savings do start to add up more than the additional cost of guacamole. You could even buy a burrito for dinner, eat half, and have the second half as a lunch leftover the next day. Of course, this would require more self-control than most people have when delicious food is in front of them.
No. 1: You Can Put Your Foot in These Savings
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Subway’s Meal of the Day
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Price: $9.99
And the number one fast-food meal that is cheaper than “we have food at home” is … the Subway Meal of the Day!
Why doesn’t everyone just relax and enjoy a delicious Subway sandwich until the stock market figures itself out? You can set your calendar to Subway’s Meal of the Day, which includes a daily rotating footlong sub option, a choice of a bag of chips or two cookies and a drink. This is an easily shareable meal too, as even Subway is shocked more people aren’t splitting in this economy.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Top 5 Fast-Food Meals Cheaper Than ‘We Have Food at Home’
