13 February, 2009

McDonald's Sausage McMuffin With Egg

Even though I don't really like McDonald's burgers very much, their breakfast sandwiches are fairly brilliant. An Egg McMuffin or a Sausage McMuffin With Egg may have a bad rap because of the "Mc" in the name, but it's purely guilt by association. One egg, an English muffin, and a 3 ounce sausage patty is a delicious and yet modest breakfast, and there it is, right in that little paper wrapper, ready for you to start your day.

Recently, the McDonald's restaurants near me started running a morning special: Two Sausage McMuffins with Egg for $3.33. I sometimes stop on my way to work and pick up the special, and then give one of the sandwiches to a coworker. I figured that at $1.67 each, I probably couldn't make them at home that cheap.

And that got me wondering - seeing as how the old KFC $10 Challenge was so easily disproved - was I really getting a great deal at McDonalds?

To make Sausage McMuffins with Egg, I need only four ingredients: sausage, eggs, English muffins, and a mild yellow cheese.

16 ounce tube of bulk sausage, $3.00, which yields six 2½-ounce patties at $0.50 each.
6-pack English muffins, $3.49, or $0.58 per muffin.
1 dozen regionally-raised large brown eggs, $2.29, or $0.19 per egg.
1 pound of Land-O-Lakes yellow American cheese, $4.99, or $0.31 per 1-ounce slice.

My total cost to make a sausage/muffin/egg breakfast sandwich would be $1.58 each, a whopping savings of nine cents.

Link:

McDonald's USA
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You forgot to factor in the cost of electric or gas to cook it. Plus other more remote costs.

BTW -- our local SuperFresh had Thomas English Muffin two pack (12 of them) for $1.99 yesterday. Its been a long time since we had any, and hopped right on that deal.

Dale

Dave said...

I didn't forget, I deliberately left the cost of fuel, time, and cleanup out of the equation as I did with the KFC calculations.

To attempt to factor in infinitesimal amounts like the price of the gas or electric, or non-comparable costs like the restaurant's payroll vs. the cost of my time, isn't really the point.

Even in home ec textbooks, when the cost per serving of a meal is calculated, it's based on ingredients only, and that's the standard I used.

Anonymous said...

The reason why the KFC Challenge is easily disproved is the family in the commercial was shopping Doll's Market here in Lousiville. Doll's Market is the most expensive grocery store in town... everything is free range, organic and expen$ively over priced.

Dolls Market cateres to the uber-rich in town... you won't come close there. Now if I shopped our local Buy-Low grocery I could buy a whole raw uncooked chicken for about $3.50 some ol' colonel flour or drakes crispy fry mix for about .99 a box which is already seasoned well... a bag of store brand instant mashed potatoes (do you think that KFC uses anything better?) and some deli cole slaw for .99 a pound there. For around 6 bucks and it's better too.

Anonymous said...

You forgot the butter. They butter the english muffin.

Ross Grant said...

We cant find those sausages in britain!

Matt McWax said...

I paid $6.50 for 2 of these (regular menu price) after tax today. Inflation is real.