In July 2023, Sam Learner of Brooklyn, N.Y. sparked a national conversation about the cost of fast food after he tweeted a photo of a McDonald’s menu board showing a Big Mac combo meal selling for $17.59. Of course, the McDonald’s in question was an extreme outlier, located at a rest stop on the Connecticut Turnpike in Darien, which happens to be one of the wealthiest towns in the entire U.S.
A day after his initial tweet, Learner—whose profile on ‘X’ indicates that he’s a graphics journalist and a member of the visual storytelling team at the Financial Times—tweeted again and admitted that “he may have stumbled into the country’s most expensive McDonald’s.” But the cat was out of the bag, and McDonald’s has been contending with questions about its pricing ever since. So much so that on May 29, 2024, Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA, felt compelled to publish an open letter pushing back against the “viral social posts and poorly sourced reports that McDonald’s has raised prices significantly beyond inflationary rates.”
A detailed analysis of the “myths vs. facts” presented by Erlinger is beyond the scope of this article. At All Good Points (AGP), our mission is to help readers earn and save money while shopping and eating out, and we focus on highlighting tips and tools that can work to your benefit all the time. So, while it’s worth mentioning that on June 24, 2024, McDonald’s launched a “$5 meal deal,” that’s a temporary initiative that will last however long it lasts.
If you want to make your money go further at McDonald’s—any McDonald’s in the U.S., even the one in Darien that charges $18 for a Big Mac combo—here are a few things you need to know:
Must Do: Download the McDonald’s App
If you want to get more for your money at McDonald’s, download the McDonald’s app. We cannot stress this enough, and neither can the President of McDonald’s USA. In Erlinger’s open letter, he calls the McDonald’s app “the greatest way to unlock all the value we offer.” He also highlighted the app when he appeared on the Today Show to announce the aforementioned $5 meal deal, noting that “the (McDonald’s) app offers great value every day.”
It’s true. There are valuable long-running deals in the app, many of which are of the “buy one get one free” or “buy one get one for a dollar ”variety. For example, buy one get one free breakfast sandwich, or buy one get one for $1 double cheeseburger. Also, with an app deal you may be able to purchase coffee, tea or soft drinks at a lower price than on the regular menu board. You might also see deals for a fixed percentage off your purchase (a la, 20% off any purchase of $12 or more), and “free fries Friday” is another popular promotion.
But the value doesn’t stop there. By creating an account in the app, you can earn rewards points (100 points for each dollar spent) that can be redeemed for free food and drink. Moreover, you can unlock a new double points offer each week (double points on any breakfast purchase, for example), which can help you accumulate points faster.
McDonald’s and Upside, Other Shopping Apps
Likewise, there are other shopping apps and dining rewards programs that may allow you to earn cash back or gift cards when you spend at McDonald’s. For example, Upside (which pays you cash back when you buy gasoline, eat at restaurants and shop at convenience stores) has been known to feature select McDonald’s restaurants. And Lolli, a very useful cash back app that allows you to earn a percentage back on purchases at select retailers, has been known to offer cash back at McDonald’s.
Likewise, we’ve seen McDonald’s locations featured in Marriott’s dining rewards program, which allows you to earn Marriott hotel points when you eat at restaurants. And you can often purchase McDonald’s gift cards at a discount in popular gift cards apps, if you want to go that route.
We’ll take a deeper a deeper dive into saving money at McDonald’s in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any tips for making your dollar go further at McDonald’s, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at AGP.
