🍟 I tried all the McDonald's $5 Meal Deals – here's what I discovered in my review
McDonald's is selling $5 Meal Deals through its app, but only for a limited time. Here are some hacks to save even more money.
💸 I tried the 3 different McDonald’s $5 Meal Deals, which include:
🍔 McDouble, 🐔 McChicken OR 🌶️ Spicy McChicken + 🐔 4-piece McNuggets, 🍟 Small fries, and 🥤Small soft drink
👀 Watch out: NYC, LA and Boston charge $6 for certain Meal Deals
🤑 Hidden hack: Save more with a $2 off or $20% off with in-app coupons
📆 McDonald’s Meal Deal offer will be available for about a month
Strictly for research purposes, I tested the McDonald’s $5 Meal Deals that just launched as a way to draw in cash-strapped consumers, and I discovered a few McNuggets you’ll want to know about. I’m here to dish on my personal delicious Mickey D's hacks, too.
Let’s go over the basics. There are three different Meal Deals throughout the US right now, and they can vary based on where you live:
🍔 McDouble, 🐔 McChicken OR 🌶️ Spicy McChicken
🐔 4-piece McNuggets
🍟 Small fries
🥤 Small soft drink
$5 McDonald’s Meal Deals review
That’s a fairly good combo for $5 in 2024, with enough variety for my liking: a burger and McNuggets with fries and a drink for an Abraham Lincoln? Put us down for four!
Sure enough, the $5 McDonald’s Meal Deals have been popular, at least according to my gazing at other tables and doing a small-sized straw poll at my local restaurant. Yes, I ate inside a McDonald’s twice for the first time in years for this exclusive McDonald’s Meal Deal review (because no one else is taking this assignment).
🗺️ But not all cities where I “tested” the Meal Deals were the same. I noticed differences between NYC and New Jersey, for example, and observed increased pricing on Meal Deals in Los Angeles and Boston when looking through the app.
💰 It’s $6 for the McDouble Meal Deal in cities like NYC, LA and Boston
🤷♂️ Spicy McChicken sandwiches aren’t available at every McDonald’s
The lack of Spicy McChicken sandwiches nationwide is in line with what I found out when trying to order Spicy McNuggets in New York City when they relaunched a few months ago. Despite being touted for major cities including NYC and Boston, much of the northeast of the United States never had Spicy McNuggets in stock. Trust me, I checked. And asked. No one knows why.
Save money with my McDonald’s hacks
This newly launched McDonald’s deal comes after people on social media pointed out that fast food prices had risen faster than the rate of inflation. It forced McDonald’s to issue a press release refuting the claims. But the feeling was inescapable.
🤑 So here are my two personal pro tips to save even more:
📱 1. In-app discounts
When I opened the McDonald’s app on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, I saw the “Rewards & Deals” section had two discounts that applied to the $5 Meal Deal order.
Save $2: You can save $2 on the $5 Meal Deal with the $2 off in-app coupon. It has to be $5 or more, so a single Meal Deal just makes the cutoff. I ended up paying $3.20 in this instance in New Jersey.
Save 20% off: This is best for two or more Meal Deals. I saved $3.20 with this “20% off any purchase of $10 or more” deal in NYC when I ordered three Meal Deals (no, they weren’t all for me, I swear).
🍟 2. Use Deals + Points
This is my big secret. If there’s one thing I could fix about the McDonald’s app it’s the ability to use discounts and points at the same time points. McDonald’s Reward points expire after six months and very few people I talked to know about them, and this makes them difficult to use.
🤓 The nerdy hack: Currently, you’re only able to use your points OR a coupon. So my second McDonald’s hack is to do two separate orders back-to-back. Sometimes the app will warn that you’ll have to wait 15 minutes. If the app actually enforces this rule in your area, here’s what I do: I order what will stay warm first (like a “free McChicken” from the deals section), and I claim that I’m at the restaurant when I’m seven minutes from walking through the doors (that’s when it starts getting made). Then I use the 20% off on my second order seven minutes later (which includes delicate items like the fries). Worth it.
But that’s only for McDonald’s diehards who knew this week was 🟪😬 Grimace’s birthday.