We Tried to Get Fast Food Meals for $10; Here’s What Happened – Orange County Register

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you can get a quick meal for $10 – sometimes.

But this is not an easy task. That is why the big fast food chains have opted for advantageous prices this summer in order to compensate for the drop in sales.

McDonald’s led the way with its $5 and $6 meal deals, which were matched by Burger King.

These combos consist of the least expensive items on the menu and small portions that resemble kids’ meals.

We challenged ourselves to see if we could do better working with a budget of $10 per meal.

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We’ve picked five burger chains that are either based in Southern California or started here: Carl’s Jr., Del Taco, In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box and McDonald’s.

The basic rules were to try to get four items — a burger, a side, a drink and a dessert — without resorting to member rewards, digital offers or kids’ meals.

Our results were mixed. Here’s what we found, from easiest to worst.

Taco

This Lake Forest chain is known for its Mexican cuisine, but burgers and fries have been on the menu since its inception.

Del Taco offers a value menu, Real Deal$, with several sides priced between $1 and $2, making it a great selection.

We opted for the cheapest burger, the Del Cheeseburger at $3.29, which left us with over $6 to play with.

We had a snack taco for $1.49, an order of mini churros for $1.99 and an iced coffee for $2.19.

The total comes to $8.68 for four items.

Information: deltaco.com

In-N-Out Burger

This chain only serves burgers, fries and drinks, making the ordering process simple.

We opted for combo #3, which includes a burger without cheese, medium fries, and a medium soft drink.

In-N-Out doesn’t serve desserts, so for the challenge, we turned the soda into a root beer float, which is on the chain’s secret menu. It’s half Barq’s Root Beer and half vanilla shake. We were charged the price of a shake, $3, rather than the average soda, $2.45.

The bill came to $9.56 for three items.

Information: in-n-out.com

Carl Jr.

We paid less than $10, but had to settle for the chain’s Double Take combo menu, which will only be available through August 13. It offers a choice of two dishes for $6. We used it to get a small spicy cheeseburger and small fries.

We couldn’t afford dessert, but had 1% chocolate milk as a substitute.

The total was $9.45 for three items.

Information: carlsjr.com

McDonalds

Thanks to a limited-time offer that makes each fountain drink $1.49, we were able to get four items, but not quite for $10.

We ordered a cheeseburger, fries, apple pie and a fountain drink. Sales tax brought the total to $10.29 for four items.

Information: mcdonalds.com

Jack in the box

Despite the chain’s under-$4 Munchies menu, we couldn’t find a way to get four items for $10.

We figured we could get four items for $9.99 based on the prices listed on Jack in the Box’s website, but the prices at the stores we visited were slightly higher. For example, the chain’s two signature 99-cent tacos were priced at $1.99 in stores.

We ended up buying a Jr. Jumbo Jack, two tacos, mini churros, and a small fountain drink for $11.81.

Information: https://www.jackinthebox.com/

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