These Clever and Affordable Hacks Will Upgrade Anyone’s McDonald’s Experience

Look, there’s no going around (pun intended) the fact that eggs were meant to be round. That’s why we totally understand anybody who isn’t a fan of McDonald’s strange, squared eggs. Also, the regular squared eggs can get a little stale near the closing hours. That’s why we recommend you go ahead and ask for the special round eggs they make in the mornings for the McMuffin. Sometimes, the employees will oblige your request.

Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of trying that piece of potato goodness known as the McDonald’s hash brown knows just how good they can truly be. That person also knows that one of these bad boys is never enough. Now, they usually go for a buck a piece, but there’s a button on the till machine, the “Uplift Hash Brown” button, that’ll make it so one of these will cost you only 50 cents.

For some strange and unknown reason, some McDonald’s seem to charge you more for the larger meals in such a way that isn’t properly scaled to the smaller meals. Take nuggets for example, while a four-piece meal of nuggets may cost you $1.19, a ten-piece will cost you $3.60. Now, if you know your multiplication table, you know that doesn’t make any sense. So go ahead and check those prices!

Now, while this may seem like a mystery at first, it’s quite simple. The only thing mysterious about this is mystery shoppers! You know, the ones who sneak in all stealthily and order food to rate the quality of the food. By now, restaurants have conjured their own ways of figuring out who’s a mystery customer, and one of their methods is keeping an eye out on anyone who needs receipts.

Kids tend to have this unsightly habit of wanting everything all at once. It doesn’t matter if they can handle what they want (they usually can’t), they just want it tall. They haven’t yet grasped the concept of things meshing or not meshing well together. So, the next time your kid pesters you for every dessert item on the menu, try giving him one of these bad boys.

Oh, yes. The Sausage Egg McMuffin. It’s so much better than your regular, old, plain McMuffin (though the regular McMuffin goes insanely hard, too). Unfortunately, McDonald’s seems to know exactly how much this piece of breakfast perfection is worth, given that it’s a lot pricer than your average McMuffin or even regular sausage McMuffin. There is, however, a way to get around McDonald’s admittedly steep price tag.

A lot of people may be perfectly satisfied with their own particular way of ordering the McFlurry, but trust us, this recipe may just top any other variation of the McFlurry you’ve ever tried. Just ask (kindly, as is proper) the McDonald’s employees to squirt a little bit of caramel and hot fudge into your McFlurry. If they’ll oblige, you’ll find out just how sublime a piece of McDonald’s ice cream can be.

There’s a strange obsession taking the world by storm. We are of course, talking about Boba Tea. It’s all the rave nowadays. It seems unavoidable, places that had nothing to do with tea are suddenly serving Boba Tea. Unfortunately, McDonald’s isn’t one of those places, yet. But, you could make yourself a cup of delicious milk tea, which is basically boba tea without the boba. Just order a cup of sweet tea.

Don’t worry, you’ll also ask for a few salt packets on the side to add to your fries! This just guarantees that you’ll get a fresh batch of fries, and not those soggy, old ones that have been waiting around all day, just sitting there. Chances are that your local McDonald’s just doesn’t have a batch of saltless fries lying around, meaning they’ll have to make them from scratch, just for you.

The boxes in which Mcdonald’s fries usually come in are, luckily, very malleable. That means you can adjust them to suit your every whim and need, and sometimes what you need is a place to put your ketchup (or whatever sauce you’re craving) when you have no fixed plate to use. Just bend your chips container in a manner similar to that of the picture, and you’re good to go!

So some mad McDonald’s scientist may have just come up with one of the most creative, resourceful, and downright blasphemous ways to eat Mcdonald’s. We can only imagine that he had been painstakingly crafting this schema for years, motivated by god knows what. Anyways, the instructions are pretty simple: just unfold the burger box and use your cup as leverage. That’s pretty much all there is to it, really.

So anybody who’s ever had the pleasure of getting Mcdonald’s through a Drive-Thru knows the intense pleasure of snacking on fries in the car while you’re on your way back home or wherever it is you plan on eating that delicious meal you just bought. Unfortunately, just snacking on fries can get a little bit boring. This is exactly where the McFlurry lid can come in handy. 

If there’s one thing we can all pretty much agree upon, it’s that McDonald’s is pretty crafty when it comes to its marketing strategies and ploys. Take what’s known as “the decoy effect”, for instance: McDonald’s will price their medium drink at a price way closer to the large drink than that of the smaller-sized drink, to unconsciously nudge buyers into getting the larger-sized drinks instead of the smaller ones.

There’s an old saying that’s been circulating among McDonald’s understanders for years, if not decades now: know where you’re going and when to go. Now, we’ll save the “where” part for another day, but we’ll gladly talk about the when: most McDonald’s have pretty intense rush hours. During these hours, you’ll find it hard to get hospitable service that’ll attend to your specific needs. Nothing really to do about that. 

This next hack is shared by a TikToker and has been approved by McDonald’s employees themselves. To score a free hot chocolate, all you have to do is ask for a cup of hot water and two (or more, we won’t judge) packets of chocolate sauce. Pour the chocolate into the hot water, make sure you mix it well, and voila! You have a McDonald’s hot chocolate on the house. 

Now, we know this article has a lot to do with saving money and not splurging, but there are some things in life worth spending on. The perfect McFlurry, for instance, is definitely one of those things. But what constitutes a perfect McFlurry? Well, we’ll tell you – the perfect McFlurry has an excellent ice cream to toppings ratio. Unfortunately, in this day and age, that’s pretty rare. There’s a way to guarantee this ratio, though.

This one goes out to those Big Mac lovers who know that one Big Mac just isn’t enough. Some people will definitely swear by the Big Mac when it comes to McDonald’s burgers. They just believe it’s the tastiest item on the menu. Then again, those people will often tell you that the Big Mac is, ironically, too small! That’s why this nifty trick is so gosh darn useful.

If there’s one thing about the Happy Meal that obstructs our happiness it’s the fact that it doesn’t come with a plate, and that your kid, or whoever ordered the Happy Meal, is extremely liable to stain his clothes due to just that. Well, it turns out we just weren’t using the Happy Meal packaging correctly, as the Happy Meal box can actually double as a plate. Pretty neat, right?

So we’re going to be teaching you two killer ways to save on McDonald’s drinks. Yeah, that’s right – you’re getting two tips at the price of one, which is free regardless. The first tip has to do with promotional drinks – buy any hot beverage of your choice, and when you’re done just ask the workers for a refill of a promotional drink. That’ll be sure to quench your thirst.

The sad thing about coffee is that it seems as though the tastier your caffeinated drink is, the less effective it is. Drinking a delicious milky latte just won’t give you that coffee boost that a double shot of espresso will. Thankfully, there’s actually a way around this – you can always order a shot of espresso on the side and add it to your coffee beverage of choice.

We bet you’ve never heard of the Neapolitan milkshake. Yeah, that’s right, that’s a thing. “What could that thing be?” You ask. Well, we’ll put it like this: Have you ever been lost for choice when it came to choosing a particular flavor of McDonald’s milkshakes? Have you ever agonized over whether you should have strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla? Well, it’s for moments such as those when McDonald’s came up with their ingenious solution.

This is an urgent message going out to all brunch lovers: there is a way to enjoy the best of both worlds when it comes to McDonald’s menus. Between 10:30 and 11:00, Mcdonald’s serves both breakfast and lunch menus, which can make for some brilliant and mouth-watering brunch combinations. Sure, it might be a bit early to go for an Egg McMuffin Big Mac, but you do only live once, after all.

So, there are a few ways one could go about doing this, The first way, and this one is the easiest, and yet, somehow, the hardest, is to actually think of what you want to order before it’s your turn, thus speeding up the queue. That’s easier said than done, to be honest, but imagine a world where everybody knows exactly what they want to eat the moment they get the chance to order.

What’s worse than someone eating your french fries?! Especially when they spill into the to-go bag and become those fair game “bag fries” that your passenger happily munches as you drive, fry-less. No more! This TikTok user showed us the best hack to keep your fries from spilling over. Just fold the tallest part of the fry container over and down, and it seals the box so there are no more runaway fries! 

Now, kids, huddle up and listen, for we have quite the tale to tell. This burger right here is named the Land, Sea, and Air Burger, and as you can see, it’s absolutely monstrous. It’s a monstrosity of a burger, that much is for certain. This is something one makes by combining a beef patty (land), the Fillet-o’-Fish (sea), and the McChicken (air). This bad boy’s big enough to feed two people.

Summertime is the official season for completely deranged desserts. Seriously, eating an ice cream sandwich during the wintertime just don; ‘t make any sense, but summer just wouldn’t be summer without gobbling down at least one of these bad boys. Problem is that McDonald’s just doesn’t serve them. Fret not! We have just the solution for you. Order two soft-baked chocolate chip cookies and an Oreo Mcflurry.

Okay, so growing up, we were definitely one of the kids that were totally disgusted by the prospect of dipping fries into ice cream. We just never got it – it seemed despicable to us. What could be so good about dipping a bunch of salty fries into a sundae? We were baffled. Discombobulated. Dumbfounded. And then, finally, we actually decided to try it. We haven’t been the same since.

Okay, so this is going to be a bit of a weird one, but it may just come in handy once in a while. If you ever find yourself craving something nourishing and (dare we say) healthy, but you also find yourself having to eat at McDonald’s, well you may just want to try out this little meal right here. Try ordering a few pieces of chicken, such as McNuggets.

So we know that McDonald’s pancakes aren’t the most popular item on the McDonald’s breakfast menu, but that probably wouldn’t be the case if people actually knew that, with a little bit of planning and effort, McDonald’s pancakes can actually be morphed into fully-fledged crepes, All you have to do is just order some pancakes and a kid’s fruit basket on the side. Then, let this picture be your guide.

If there’s one thing we love about TikTok it’s just how it drives regular people to try and invent some incredibly deranged (and admittedly creative) things. Take this TikTok-created dessert, for example. They made up their own original take on the classic Italian dessert known as the affogato, which is basically ice cream and espresso. To make it, just order an iced latte and a cone of classic McDonald’s ice cream.

Now, while weour thep obviously love McDonald’s, we’ll be the first to admit that they don’t usually serve those decadent, dirty dishes that some other places do. You’ll be hard-pressed, for instance, to find cheesy fries at a McDonald’s. Luckily, we have the next best thing – buffalo ranch fries. Just order yourself a side helping of buffalo sauce and ranch and pour those bad boys all over your fries.

So you know how eating a burger is at once both a blissful and harrowing experience due to its intense risk-reward factor? The reward, obviously, is the fact that the burger tastes great, while the risk is the fact that you’re prone to staining your clothes with burger sauce at any given moment. Well, here’s a trick to eliminate that exact risk. All you need to do is empty your fries container.

If you’re not too into the whole Chicken McNuggets salad thing, then you may want to check out this other salad option that the internet came up with. All you have to do is order a side Caesar with 2 pieces of grilled chicken breast. From that point, you’re free to choose if you’d like to cut the chicken into smaller pieces or just eat them as mains with the salad to the side.

By now, you’ve seen some delicious secret menu items and some more budget-friendly hacks- but we think it’s about time to combine the two. All you have to do is order a McChicken and a double cheeseburger from the value menu- they’re usually about a dollar each. Throw them together, and you’ll have a huge, belly-filling burger for less money than almost anything else on the menu. Not to mention, it’s so good people say the combo has changed their lives. 

Why, you ask, should one do this? Well, we’ll put it to you real simple: while the apple pie is definitely one of the all-time greats, truly a classic McDonald’s dessert, it is, for some people, getting kind of old. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything on the McDonald’s menu quite like it, which is exactly why McDonald’s is rying so hard to make new pie flavors.

The Nasi Lemak burger was definitely one of those McDonald’s items that shocked the world for a hot minute, only to be swiftly removed from the menu as though it never existed. But it did exist, and it shall live on in our memories and hearts. But what is one to do when he craves the Nasi Lemak? Well, you could just make it yourself, you know.

Look, some of us are picky eaters, there’s just no avoiding that. Nothing to do about the things one can’t change, right? That said, some picky eaters tend to dislike sesame seeds on their burger buns. Usually, these guys tend to pick out the seeds one by one, which, although not an insurmountable task, definitely isn’t our definition of a good time. That’s why we recommend asking for a regular, sesame-less, steamed bun.

The thing about McDonald’s milkshakes is that they’re absolutely delicious and that we tend to just devour them in a heartbeat. So, why not utilize the efficiency of your cravings and order a shot of espresso on the side, and pour that bad boy into the McDonald’s milkshake? That way you’ll be able to caffeinate yourself at a moment’s notice as you go to town on your delicious McDonald’s milkshake.