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Get a Medium Cheese Burger Meal for $4.05 Instead of $5.95 at McDonalds + Some Hints and Tricks

6920

Hey guys, I have been an employee at McDonalds for 5 years so I have decided to share a few deals and hints you can use to save some money and get the best products.

Firstly - A ~$4 medium cheeseburger meal.

The loose change menu deal is currently a $5 medium double beef n bacon meal. Personally, I prefer just normal cheeseburgers. So instead of taking the meat off manually, you can request the burger without bacon and without one piece of meat (We call it 10:1 (ten to one), as it is a tenth of a pound). As you can see in the picture provided, the meal is -90c as adding and removing pieces of meat costs and saves you $$$ respectively.

By asking for a medium double beef and bacon meal WITHOUT 1 piece of meat and without the bacon, you are essentially ordering a cheeseburger (without a pickle, but you can ask for a pickle if you want) with medium fries and a drink, saving yourself nearly $2 if you had ordered a medium cheeseburger meal.

Secondly - Fresh fries

Personally, I hate it when customers do this, but whatever.
If you want fresh fries, you can simply ask for fresh fries, but generally we will be annoyed by your request and just give you the same fries as everyone else.
Instead, ask for either no salt, or only a little bit of salt. We will be forced to wait for the fresh fries to come up to give you the type of fries you asked for.

Thirdly - Fresh Meat

Again, I hate this.
If you want fresh meat on your burgers, ask for the meat unsalted and with Angus seasoning. We automatically salt and pepper all meat we cook. If you ask for Angus seasoning instead of salt and pepper, we have to cook a run of meat specially for you and put the Angus seasoning (Usually only put on Angus meat) on your burger. If you want a Angus burger, we put both salt and pepper AND Angus seasoning on it, so this will still work.

Fourthly - General hints and tips

  • We are supposed to throw out any meat/chicken which is past it's timer (Generally these are 20-30 minutes). On overnight and during non-busy periods we get lazy and just press the timer again instead of throwing it out and cooking fresh product. This is why I never eat the bacon on the double beef n bacons. It is one of the worse culprits for this. Sometimes it will sit in a tray from breakfast (10:30ish) to about 12-1 in the afternoon until we use it all, depending on how much was cooked and left over.

  • The oil in our vats are supposed to be changed every 2 weeks. If you can see the the bottom of the vats and the oil is clear, the oil is very fresh and the chicken is 5x more tastier. If it's black, then it's old and you get run of the mill tasting chicken.

EDIT

Just to be clear - we filter this oil every 12 hours. The chicken is not cooked in dirty oil continuously. Once filtering is done, the oil is pretty much brand new, but not as see-through-ey.

Sorry for the confusion.

  • Be nice to us and we will be nice to you. Common sense. I don't come into your workplace and start swearing my head off because this burger isn't $2 cheaper than the store down the road or that you got the wrong order. Be calm and polite and you will get your problem sorted.

  • Every store which has a drive thru has a certain amount of time to get cars through. My store is 3 minutes. That means as soon as you roll up at the speaker box, we have 3 minutes to get you your food and rolling away. We have a scoreboard in the store showing how many cars each store has done in the past hour, and the percentage of how many cars have met that deadline. So when going through drive thru, please be conscious of this and order quickly and efficiently as you will make us and the people behind you waiting happy.

  • If you have a problem, ask to speak with a manager if it's serious. If you're missing a toy, fries, a drink, just ask a normal crew member and they will get you one.

  • I am 90% certain that a Bacon and Egg add Sausage is cheaper than a Sausage and Egg add Bacon. 10% of me says that they are the same price.

  • Remember that the crew who work at McDonalds are generally teenagers and this is their first job. Don't expect 5 star service from people who aren't tall enough to ride a roller coaster.

Sorry if this belongs in the forums. Enjoy your Meals!

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closed Comments

  • +2

    Agreed with bacon comment.. sometimes it's tough and chewy. Like pork jerky.

  • everytime I ask for sausage patties in drive through they pretend they cant understand me. they heard what I said they just cant comprehend that I only want the patty and not the burger.

    • +2

      It's a strange request. I don't think I've ever had that haha.

      I would suggest ordering a sausage mcmuffin without the muffin and without the cheese, but it probably is cheaper just ordering the piece of sausage.

      Special requests like that are easier when you're face to face with someone. The speaker boxes aren't that great.

      • they are 90c on their own. the sausage muffin is about $3.15 and minus cheese and muffin wont reduce the price that much.

        I take them home freeze them and make my own muffins in the week.

        how much is the cheese slices on their own? I want to buy a whole packet but doubt they would let me and im not going to drive all the way to bega to get it

        • +1

          50c I believe.

        • +15

          Didn't realise McDonald's is a part time supermarket!

  • +2

    You are over stating the savings OP. A medium cheeseburger meal at Glen Waverley is $5.15, Ferntree Gully $5.20, and Knoxfield $5.50

    • +1

      Sorry. At my store it's quite expensive apparently.

      You'll still save a minimum of $1 if that tickles your fancy.

      I tried looking up prices online, but each store has their own prices. It's a pain.

      • +1

        Yes, a saving is a saving so it's still a good deal.

  • +2

    Had to laugh at the part about teenagers not being tall enough to ride a roller coaster :).

    • +4

      Had to choose a fitting analogy :)

  • This post just makes me want to go eat some McDonad now!

  • +3

    Great writeup :) Nearly makes me want to actually go to a McDonalds for the first time in years :)

    • +3

      Hopefully Maccas HQ send me some royalties from the profits they get.

      • +3

        They will have to find you first :)
        Good work though!

      • +2

        quote: "they have to find me first"!

  • Wow, i don't visit MacAss ooops Maccas anymore, but this was an interesting read, thanks for sharing the insights !!!

  • 2 weeks to change the oil?

    times that by how many things are fried in there DAILY, 24/7…. yum yum dim sum!

    I think I just threw up a bit!

    • +3

      Until we got a new store owner, we were doing it once a month I believe.

      Other stores might do it more often. I'm not sure. I've personally only done it twice.

    • +3

      I used to work at Maccas, so I have a bit of insight here. All the oil in the vats is 'dumped' (as in, completely replaced) once every week or two, but it gets filtered many, many times a day, and the filter is cleaned twice per day. New boxes of oil are also added when necessary, so it isn't just the same old oil sitting there for weeks on end. If it were unhealthy, there would be policies against it.

      • +3

        There are policies apparently, as there must be for public health. Don't want to overstate the risk involved but all the filters in the world won't change the chemical processes which can turn oil into a carcinogen, although dilution might help. The health risk is real if very small but the cost of oil is factored into the business and the risk to the reputation of the franchise just isn't worth it.

        • +2

          Somehow I think that people who dine at Maccas hardly care much about how (un)healthy the food is.

      • If it were unhealthy, there would be policies against it

        is there a policy against eating at Maccas?

  • Any hints and tips or deals on getting Chicken McNuggets?
    I've been told if you ask for "fresh" McNuggets that will make it for you, otherwise you're given the ones left in the warmer…

    • +1

      I thought about it. No other way apart from knowing when they're fresh and the oil is nice.

      I too enjoy some tasty chicken nuggets!

      • Or like the hack, order 2 McChicken patties and they're supposed to equal 1 or 2 lots of chicken nuggets?

    • +2

      Funny that you know what ground up roadkill thats been drying in the sun for weeks slapped between two pieces cardboard and their fries taste like deep fried sawdust tastes like!!

      • +1

        Yeup, tastes like Maccas ;)

    • +1

      M8, eat natural food your whole and you will die of natural causes….fuk DAT.

      • +1

        Eat this type of "food" if you want but personally, I'd rather be fit and healthy, live longer, die of natural causes than eat this crap, have clogged arteries, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and die at a young age of a heart attack.

        • +1

          Many of the health nuts I know who eat 'healthy', exercise every day, go to bed early etc, have had heart attacks or can barely walk due to the various injuries they sustained while running/cycling. Meanwhile their grandparents who never ate anything healthy except by accident and consider standing up to find the remote control strenuous exercise are ploughing on into their nineties.

        • +3

          @greenie4242:

          Sounds like the sort of logic the neckbeards fawning over the OP in this thread employ to justify their lifestyles: screw exercising, I might get injured like that guy said. Seriously?

          Also, grandparents who never ate anything healthy? What? Are you high? Previous generations were much healthier given they exercised more, had fewer conveniences (like washing machines, dishwashers, vacuum clearers etc etc) and ate much less processed food, which was arguably fresher as more produce was sourced locally. Probably the most retarded statement I've read in a while - congratulations.

        • @Sir Casm:
          Good points there.

    • +4

      Roadkill is natural food.

      Freshly squeezed.

      • So is the "other" white meat.

    • Not sure what you don't like about artificial substitutes? Artificial intelligence doesn't seem to bother you!

    • +1

      i check the post just to find out who is the xxxx that negged the deal.

      oh well,it is tommy the darko.

    • +1

      No deal for t-shirts. Feels like something unnatural on your body. Rather stick with the nature and walk naked.

  • +7

    Personally, I hate it when customers do this, but whatever.

    I'm very impressed that you still let other people know about this deal despite it not being advantageous to yourself, as this is very good customer-oriented service. If I still ran a company I'd ask for your details and offer you a job!

    So many employees forget that the customer is paying for a service and if the customer is happy they will come back again, and generally be friendlier. Too often employees these days treat customers as thought they're doing them a big favour and if something goes wrong or they have a special request, tough luck.

    • +2

      I just hope nobody who sees this lives near my store!

      • Rosny Park?

  • +1

    Thanks SnowDragon, now give us some hacks for cheap Chicken/Fish burgers :P

    • https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/142675

      There's a cheaper McChicken.

      Can't give you any for the filet. They're stock standard.

    • +1

      Yeah, Fillet-o-fish never on special. And so small now.. but still tasty.

    • Chicken n Mayo
      -chicken
      -lettuce
      -mayonnaise
      +cheese
      +fish
      +tartar sauce
      +steam bun
      Works out to be around $3.15? Instead of $4.85

  • nice of you to disclose this information but i would worry about advertising ways to buy things cheaper?? i would suspect maccas to dislike this sort of activity ~ wouldnt want u losing ur job

    • +3

      Don't hate the player, hate the game!

  • Nice work champ! You must have had a crap day in order for the need to vent! or just be a generous soul.

  • Great post OP. Can you provide a bit of clarity around custom orders and the pricing structure? Like Big Macs with the McChicken patties subbed in, or the half or full pounder? And also, is the Mc10:35 a doable option in Australia and are you aware of this "secret menu"?

    • +6

      I'll do my best.

      Big Mac with Chicken patties

      When removing meat, the price of the burger goes down.

      Big mac meat (10:1) - 90c
      Quarter meat (4:1) - $1.20 (I think)
      Angus Meat (3:1) - $1.50 (I think)

      And vice versa when adding the meats. Same applies to chicken products.

      I'm not 100% on the cost of the chicken, but a stab in the dark would be $1 - $1.50.

      So you'll end up paying either 20c or $1.20 more with the McChicken patties instead of the 10:1.

      Half and Full Pounder

      Same rules apply.

      You have to pay for the extra 4:1 and cheese. We will see the order come up as
      EXTRA SLICE CHEESE
      EXTRA 4:1

      Depending on what one you order, there will be more and it will be more expensive.

      And also, is the Mc10:35 a doable option in Australia and are you aware of this "secret menu"?

      Had to google this.

      This is perfectly doable. We officially start main menu at 10:30 and we officially finish and waste breakfast at 10:45 so there is ample time for you to order both breakfast and main menu.

      • That is brilliant, thanks for replying!

    • I thought the Mc10:35 was exactly the same as the Mighty muffin, or McMighty, or whatever the hell they called it… ??

    • +1

      "secret menu".

      Holy hell, after looking that up, found the burger below:

      http://hackthemenu.com/mcdonalds/secret-menu/monster-mac/

      That's a lot of beef.

  • +1

    Maccas Genie, I wish pancakes and hash browns were available 24/7. :)

    • Hot cakes are available all day =)

      • Really?

  • The oil should be changed every 3-4 days not every 2 weeks!!!

    I mean come on the fryers are on nearly 24 hours a day 7 days a week, then again with that much use and with the oil being topped up by huge amounts do they actually need changing??? hmmm big conundrum.

    • We do filter the vats every 12 hours.

      The filter boxes are washed in those times, so all the filth in the oil is thrown in the bin.

  • Has anyone tried the McGangBang?

    You buy a double beef n' bacon, and a chicken and mayo, and you put the chicken and mayo between the two beef paddies. tada!

    Technically it's meant to be a double cheeseburger and a McChicken, but this is a far cheaper route.

    http://www.eatmedaily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/…

    • Last week I got a McChicken, a Filet o Fish, and a Double Cheeseburger and combined them. All I could taste was the sauce from the Filet o Fish. Worst choice I ever made.

  • As you have employment for that many years. I want to ask, is your orange juice the real deal? 100% oranges?

    • +1

      No idea tbh.

      We get orange juice in post-mix boxes.

    • It's 100% orange, and juice….so yeah.

    • +2

      I have made it myself.
      It arrives as constituted orange juice (mostly imported from Florida (85%)). It is really, really thick (think pancake mix). It is then sucked up out of the barrels with a big tube by hand and mixed with water and the local constitute (looks like normal juice). The distributor then packs it in the post mix boxes.

    • +2

      Always tasted like pure cordial to me.

  • +5

    He should be promoted to Chief of McDonald's here on Ozbargain.
    You think?

    • +1

      :(

  • +2

    Reuse cooking oil can cause cancer. Just the thought of having vegetable oils doing the deep fry again, again and again. Feeling sick as I just finish a pack of small fries.

    • +17

      If you're eating Maccas fries, your concern for your health went out the window a long time ago :P

      • Thanks. True indeed. Kid sems to know letter M before ABC. I do try but find it hard to avoid maccas totally when kids ask for a happy meal sometimes and then we eat together.

  • -3

    If you want fresh meat on your burgers, ask for the meat unsalted and with Angus seasoning.

    Luckily there is a "g" in "Angus" otherwise the seasoning would be discusting

    • +3

      Shame you didn't take it to use in your "disGusting" comment…

    • +1

      There's also a "g" in disgusting, FYI.
      edit: damnit, beaten to it. That'll teach me for dawdling through the comments.

  • Interesting read, thanks for the honesty. Out of curiosity OP, what menu items offer the least chance of food poisoning in your opinion?

    • +1

      I haven't eaten most of the things on the menu.

      But:

      ALL products are tested to ensure they are properly cooked before being served.

      About 20 minutes before we start main menu, we test all of the chicken and meat. The internal temperature has to be between 69 and 82 or something like that. If it's not, another set of meat/chicken is cooked until it meets this criteria. If it doesn't, the grill/vat responsible will not be used for the day until the meat cooked on it is ok to eat.

      • -4

        "Or something like that"

        You have worked in the food service industry for several years, claim to be a crew trainer and yet you don't know THE single most important rule about food service…food must be stored below -4 or above 70 to prevent the formation of bacteria.

        The saying "pay peanuts & you get monkeys" rings pretty true based on your rather whimsical interpretation of responsibility for your customer's health & the product you serve.

        • When you do SMX (management course) you are required to know the temperatures.

          We don't teach the crew the temperatures of the products.

  • +4

    OP, I'm giving you a positive, as not only is this information useful to know, but for how upfront you are - well done and good luck on any future endeavours :)

    • +3

      Thanks m8

  • +3

    SnowDragon, thank you for taking the time to post this. Most appreciated.

  • OP, are the meat patties steamed, microwaved or grilled before serving?

    • +1

      Grilled.

      Hotcakes are microwaved

      Filet buns and 10 inch wraps are steamed.

  • +2

    Also worth noting on the salt point, if you want salt you just have to add it yourself with salt from the condiments bar.

  • Hungry Jacks Whopper Junior Stunner Meal $5.50

    Data
    Whopper Jnr - 1456kJ
    Small chips - 999kJ
    Small coke - 639kJ
    Sundae - 1225kJ
    Total - 4319kJ

    They don't crow about it but its still available. Eat!!

    • +3

      That would be useful at the hunger games

  • Technically you're not allowed to 'grill' (change the ingredients) in a loose change menu product, so anyone who does this shouldn't be surprised if their request is rejected. However, if you're polite it's most likely that the staff will let you.

    • Incorrect.

      You are allowed to remove items.

      You cannot add/replace items.

      (I really hope I'm right :))

  • +2

    I was told by the staff at McDonald's Innaloo that I couldn't do this on a 'promo' meal.

    Dignity Lost.

    Normally I would neg, but I'd probably just get voted off…

    • You're absolutely right, technically this 'deal' is against McDonald's policies (it mentions the rule on the posters for loose change items).

      • Well it looks like I was wrong.

        I guess you'll have to manually remove the bacon and meat like I used to :(

        • Maybe, but there's no harm in posting things which push boundaries.

          Thanks for posting :)

  • -6

    I'm giving this a neg because you can't modify items on the loose change menu.

    • Nice try

    • ->neg revoked and 300+ positives for a deal that isnt valid
      ->ozbargain logic

      • Trying to greentext on OZB
        Logic

        True, the deal isn't always valid. I managed to order it at a store which wasn't mine.

        I think some of the votes are for the other hints and tips I gave.

        • If you get a newbie on the counter that does it for you because he doesn't know that he shouldn't, good for you. But being lucky doesn't make it a deal. And why bother asking for fries and meat without salt etc. Just ask them for it fresh and they'll do it.

  • +7

    I wish the McDonalds you have described was near my house. The one i have will give you a kick in the but for daring to even ask for something off the menu.
    Given up on them now last time I was there the manager went mental and threatened to have me arrested and screamed at me for 10 minutes because I spilt a small bit of drink at the drive through, refused to give me my order or a refund and when I asked if they were the manager I was told it was none of my business.

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