- These are 10 new fast food secrets
to save you money in 2022.
And some of these secrets will save you serious cash
at your favorite fast food restaurants.
Secret number one pertains to McDonald's.
And if you enjoy a McFlurry,
here's how to enjoy the essence of one
at a fraction of the cost.
Add the toppings of your choice to a basic sundae
versus ordering the McFlurry
that already has the toppings included.
And to put this hack to the test,
watch as I go through a McDonald's drive-through,
and instead of ordering a regular McFlurry,
I order a hot fudge sundae,
and I ask them to include M&Ms on top.
They obviously have no issue with this.
And when I got to the window,
I paid the regular amount for the sundae,
and 35 cents for the added topping.
I've saved myself, at least a dollar.
I score the hot fudge,
which is my favorite topic to begin with.
And the only difference between this
and a McFlurry was that I had to mix it up
with my own spoon.
My second secret for point one is for Culver's,
which is a nationwide burger chain with 680 locations.
At my local Culver's,
a meal comprises a burger, fries,
and a soft drink of your choice for $6.59.
But most people don't realize the kid's meal
is almost the same size and for $5.59,
you get a burger, a fries, and a drink of your choice,
and a free ice cream.
At a first glance, you might think the kid's meal
is a lot smaller, but the only real difference is the drink.
The burgers are the exact same size.
The fries are the exact same portion.
And with the kid's meal,
you get a coupon that you can then immediately use
for a free scoop of vanilla or chocolate frozen custard.
You don't need to have kids
or have kids in the car with you.
You do not need to be a kid,
and you can take advantage of what could be
a potentially more enticing meal for $5.59
with the ice cream bonus.
For secret number two, I'll take aim at Chipotle,
and if you and a member of your family or a friend
want the same toppings in your burrito,
you are in luck with this hack.
Ask for a bowl, plus two tortillas on the side,
and you get at least two full burritos
or potentially a third for around $8
less than someone else might pay.
Here's how it works.
A regular chicken burrito is $8.10.
Remember this number for a moment.
Instead now, consider ordering a burrito bowl
with chicken instead of a chicken burrito,
and then add whatever toppings you want to the bowl.
In this case, I ordered rice, beans,
salsa, cheese, lettuce, and veggies,
which amounts to $8.10,
the same price as a chicken burrito.
Now here's the hack.
If you're ordering in-store or online
through the Chipotle app,
where it's a little bit less awkward,
you'll see an option on the Sides portion of the menu
for a tortilla on the side,
where you can now opt to order two tortillas on the side
at 25 cents each.
For a total of 50 cents extra,
you'll have two tortillas on the side of your bowl.
Now, watch what happens when I unwrap the tortillas
and I open up the bowl, which is giant and fully packed.
I have enough food to not only fill two burritos completely,
but if a third person isn't a big eater,
you could potentially even make a third burrito
from that same amount, which is crazy.
Again, by ordering a bowl with two tortillas
on the side for a total of $8.60,
you're saving at least $8 by not having to purchase
a second chicken burrito from scratch.
That's a lot of money.
Now, on to a very popular fast food restaurant
where I didn't think there were any other hacks
left over from prior videos
that I hadn't yet shared,
but here we go with point three
and Chick-fil-A.
Not many people know this, but Chick-fil-A has a kid's meal.
And the regular kid's meal is $5.50,
and it comes with a five count of nuggets, fries,
a toy, and a drink,
but something the general public does not always realize
is that you can actually ask Chick-fil-A
to swap out the not always overly awesome kid's toy
for a free ice cream.
So I went down to Chick-fil-A, I ordered the kid's meal,
and I asked to substitute the toy for an ice cream in a cup,
which they gladly accepted
with no additional fees attached to my order.
I thought this was a much better value
for just over five bucks, not only for kids,
but even as an adult,
I could definitely fill up on this if I was not famished.
And while we are on the topic of Chick-fil-A,
you can actually buy a grilled cheese
from Chick-fil-A on their classic bun
with their classic American cheese for well under a dollar,
thanks to this next hack.
At your next Chick-fil-A visit in-store
or at the drive-through,
simply ask for a grilled cheese,
which is generally just rung up as a charge
for a classic bun with the cheese addition.
And if you ask them to toast it,
you end up with grilled cheese where locally,
it only costs me 55 cents.
Since this is not on the menu,
I did notice on my receipt that my Chick-fil-A order
was labeled on my bill as a red flag.
Does this now mean I'm on some type
of Chick-fil-A watch list?
Am I in trouble?
If you work at Chick-fil-A,
please let me know in the comments section.
The only comment I will make about the grilled cheese
I ordered is that if I was going to order this again,
I would politely ask them to toast it a bit more.
I've seen other photos tied to this grilled cheese hack,
and I'm just thinking my local restaurant
might've been in a rush
or that they have a personal vendetta against me.
For secret number four, let's head to Starbucks,
and I will spill this hack all over my car,
which you'll see in a moment.
If you love a latte from Starbucks,
you're going to save a lot of money.
That's your dad joke.
But anyhow, if you want some flavor
when you order a drink from a barista,
asked for two shots of espresso in a grande cup
alongside two pumps of your favorite flavoring.
For the purposes of demonstration,
I'm going to order what I just suggested
with some caramel drizzle on top.
And I've all of a sudden produced
a budget caramel macchiato, where the savings add up.
This was the final product I ended up with in my car.
And while filming this, I was so generous.
I decided to share the entire beverage with my front seat,
but lucky enough,
the barista took pity on me and they were nice enough
to make another drink free of charge,
despite my stupidity.
For demonstration purposes,
the milk bar was closed at my local Starbucks,
so I had a little carton of milk to showcase
for the final product.
As you can see, I poured the milk
directly into the beverage and it looks exactly
like a caramel macchiato that you would get directly
from Starbucks at a much cheaper price.
And shout out to the former Starbucks barista
that took the time to share this knowledge
in the comments section of one of my prior videos.
Now, if you thought that was good,
be sure to stay with me until secret number nine
that could just blow your mind.
For secret number five,
let's head back to McDonald's.
If you enjoy those sauce packets for dipping
or for added flavor, you likely know they cost 25 cents
if you order them directly from the restaurant.
But if you use the app, they're completely free.
I went to a McDonald's in my area
to put this secret to the test,
and I ordered a quarter pounder with cheese,
and I also asked for barbecue sauce and spicy buffalo.
As you can see the McDonald's charged me
25 cents per packet.
Now, watch what happens when I place the exact same order
from the McDonald's app.
I order one quarter pounder,
and then I proceed within reason
to order as many sauce packets as I want,
and they are all rung up for a total of $0.
Shout out to the Deal Guy subscriber Solitude,
who shared this tip.
Now, when it comes to McDonald's French fries,
I'll have you know, for this next secret,
the small and the medium French fries
are almost always exactly the same size.
So if you're craving a medium order
of McDonald's French fries,
just order the small and save yourself some money.
To put this hack to the test for you guys to see,
I ordered a small and medium French fry from McDonald's,
and instead of displaying these to you
on my bare trunk lining,
I thought this tray that I had at home
would be a little bit more appropriate
for all of the wonderful people watching,
and I do appreciate you guys watching.
As you can see, as I pull the French fries out of the bag,
both the small and the medium
have a virtually identical amount of French fries.
It is true.
McDonald's kitchen staff do have a scoop to measure,
but if they're in a rush,
that's sometimes where the sloppiness happens
and that's where your savings begin.
And before I get to the next point,
if you guys are enjoying this content,
please feel free to give this video a thumbs up.
And if you do subscribe with your notifications turned on,
it's my opportunity to hook you up
with even more hacks and secrets.
Now, secret number six.
Did you know you can order a bag of ice
from virtually any fast food restaurant,
including McDonald's?
All you have to do is ask for a bag of ice
and for roughly around a dollar,
they will gladly give you a bag of ice,
which isn't always of the exact same quality
as a convenience store or gas station bag of ice,
but if you're in a rush or tailgating
or you have a cooler that you need to quickly fill with ice,
just ask, and you can get a bag of ice
for generally around a dollar.
Now, one other McDonald's hack that I wanna mention.
Did you know you can buy an entire birthday sheet cake
from certain McDonald's for just nine bucks?
If you know of a larger McDonald's,
you are likely able to score an entire sheet birthday cake
for just a nine bucks.
Secret number seven could score you free Frosties
from Wendy's for an entire year,
all for just buying a $2 key tag.
Here's how it works.
I bought the $2 key tag,
which typically goes on the sale at the end of every year.
And in this case, since I am uploading at the start of 2022,
these $2 frosty key tags are widely available,
and there is a link in the video description box.
Once I purchase the key tag,
all I need to do is flash this
and every time, as long as I'm making some other purchase
at Wendy's and there is no minimum,
I will be able to score a free Frosty all year,
all for just having purchased this $2 Frosty key tag once.
If that's not enticing enough,
most of the proceeds tied to the Frosty tags
go to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
Also at Wendy's is another secret to save you money
if you enjoy cheese fries.
Here's the hack.
Order the Baconator fries,
and tell them to hold the bacon.
You somehow end up with the regular cheese fries
for a cheaper price.
I have absolutely no idea why this is the case.
And just so you're aware,
tips like these are for off secret menu items,
and just be patient and polite
to the hardworking men and women serving you.
It's never worth ruining someone's day
to save a little bit of money,
but it is important to stay frugal,
and with that, we go to secret number eight.
My favorite way to save money on Starbucks
is to never go to Starbucks.
But if you are craving a Frappaccino,
and you do have a friend or family member
that wants the same drink, order a venti,
and then ask for a grande cup of free water.
Starbucks is generally not willing to give out free cups,
but they will give you a free grande cup of water.
You can then share your Frappuccino with someone else
once they consume or pour out the water.
And you'll notice that when I splurged on the venti
caramel Frappuccino that you see right here,
for the purposes of demonstration,
I can pour half of this into the grande cup,
and I have two heaping beverage portions
without ever having to pay for the second drink.
If you enjoy a sausage McMuffin at breakfast,
but you wanna save a little bit of money,
you can actually order a sausage McMuffin for $1,
depending on your McDonald's location, from the dollar menu,
and then also order a plain egg biscuit with a round egg.
And there you have it.
You've just ordered yourself a DIY sausage McMuffin for less
and a huge thank you to the subscriber, Ms. Marble Konover
who shared this tip.
Secret number nine is tied to Five Guys.
And if you enjoy a burger from this restaurant,
as many viewers and subscribers have indicated they do,
and none of the restaurants on this list are sponsoring me,
you can get as much free cheese and bacon,
which could benefit someone else,
which I'll get to in a moment, with this hack.
The key is all you need to do is order the cheapest burger
you can find that includes cheese and bacon.
So I ordered the Little Bacon Cheeseburger,
and then I asked for extra cheese and a lot of extra bacon,
as you can see from my receipt, for precisely $0 extra.
And then I was able to easily shift the bacon
from my burger to two other plain hamburgers
in the same order,
saving yourself or any of the other people in a party
ordering with you, the few extra dollars
to enjoy the gift of bacon.
At Taco Bell, there's a new option on their menu
which you can tie to a hack,
which I'll explain in a moment.
It's called the Taco Pass.
And this presents a great value where you pay $10
and you score a free taco every day
for the next 30 days after you buy the Taco Pass,
and you can choose from a variety of different tacos,
one of which I enjoyed in my car.
The hack is that if you aren't likely to fill up
on just one taco,
create different accounts tied to different email addresses
and buy additional Taco Passes.
There's nothing to stop you from creating
a second or third account
and buying that second or third Taco Pass,
which would potentially mean for $30,
you get three tacos every day for a 30-day period
on every visit.
Now that might sound ridiculous to you,
but it's a cheap way to feed yourself
or to give back to people in need.
And while not quite a secret,
if you or anyone in your family enjoys Burger King,
their typically kind of expensive Whopper,
which costs a whopping $5.79 depending on your location,
is just $2 if you order a Whopper on Wednesday.
For my next fast food secret,
before we get to a couple of bonus hacks,
did you know that if a grandchild or child
that belongs to you happens to get an A
on their report card,
that A can be rewarded with free donuts?
I actually double checked this with a local Krispy Kreme
just to find out how it all worked,
and some locations will reward each A on a report card,
up to six As, with six free donuts,
while other Krispy Kreme locations will just give you
a free donut if you have an A anywhere on that report card.
So, with a little bit too much time on my hands,
I imagined what would it look like if I had a report card?
And while I obviously didn't use this report card
to score free donuts, here you go.
You're welcome.
Now, onto DQ or really any tip to apply
to all of your favorite fast food restaurants,
always ask for your receipt and always keep an eye out
on the receipt for any additional offers or survey codes,
which could score you more free food.
At Dairy Queen, for the purposes of this demonstration,
my receipt had the option for a completely free Dilly Bar
in exchange for my completion of a quick survey.
I completed the free survey and I enjoyed my free Dilly Bar,
which tasted even more delicious because it was free.
Now as a bonus,
I wanted to mention another user submitted fast food hack
that other people have had success with,
and it is tied to Raising Canes.
The hack is that when you go,
if you want some of their highly popular
and delectable toast for free,
which is usually $1 per slice,
order the Sandwich Combo, but ask for no lettuce,
the sauce on the side,
and then ask to substitute the sandwich bun for Texas toast.
You'll hopefully score an extra piece
of Texas toast for free.
In my case, this unfortunately did not work,
but it is apparently a thing.
And for my final bonus, which does work,
if you are a Sam's Club warehouse member,
a reminder, consider stocking up on gift cards
for your favorite fast food restaurants from Sam's,
because there are additional savings
built into the gift cards that you buy for cash.
As an example, you can buy $25 of Subway gift cards
for 23.98 or $50 of Starbucks gift cards for $48.88.
And these offers are substantially better
through the holiday quarter,
where you could cut your costs by up to 20%,
and not just the one or two dollars
that I'm showing you here.
But of course, every dollar does add up.
I should also mention I'm not advocating
to eat fast food all the time,
but for those of you on the go,
or if you need the convenience or the special treat,
hopefully you enjoyed this list.
Thank you so much for watching.
It's been a pleasure to have you here.
I love you. Bye-bye.