Is it Cheaper to Make or Buy Breakfast Burritos?
Breakfast Burritos are a great way to start out your morning. Whether you eat them at home, on the road, or at your workplace.My husband loves breakfast burritos because he can eat them one handed and they are more filling than typical cereal or other breakfast foods.
I love them because typically we buy the frozen ones, and they are super easy to heat up in the morning. As costs continue to go up, it made me wonder if I could save money by making my own breakfast burritos and freezing them myself. Let’s see if it saves any money!
How much does it cost to make homemade breakfast burrito?
The great part about breakfast burritos is that they are so versatile in what you can fill them with. For our cost breakdown, I will be using a simple recipe from Pillsbury. For the full recipe, click here.
| Homemade Breakfast Burrito Ingredients | Total Cost | Cost for this Recipe |
| 3 tbsp vegetable oil | Great Value 48oz bottle= $3.64 | $0.11 |
| 4 cups shredded frozen hashbrowns (about 12oz) | Great Value 26oz= $3.32 | $1.53 |
| 8 eggs | Great Value 12ct large white= $2.63 | $1.75 |
| 1 can chopped green chiles | Great Value 4oz can= $0.78 | $0.78 |
| 1/2 tsp salt | Great Value 26oz container= $0.64 | $0.01 |
| 1/2 tsp pepper | Great Value 3oz container= $3.77 | $0.01 |
| 6 sausage links | Banquet 10ct= $1.78 | $1.06 |
| 8 flour tortillas | Great Value 8ct= $1.98 | $1.98 |
| 2 cups shredded Mexican Blend Cheese | Great Value 8oz bag= $2.22 | $2.22 |
| Total Cost: $20.76 | Total Cost for this Recipe: $9.45 | Average Cost per Burrito: $1.18 |
I priced out the ingredients at my local Walmart, and if I had to buy every ingredient, the total would be $20.76. Depending on your local store and if you have some of these ingredients, your cost may be less.
When we break down the cost of the actual food used for the recipe, the total is $9.45. This makes each of the 8 burritos that the recipe makes cost about $1.18 each.
How much do breakfast burritos cost at the grocery store?
Now it’s time to head out to a few different stores to check and see how much frozen breakfast burritos cost at the grocery store!
| Frozen Breakfast Burritos & Number of Burritos | Store & Price | Cost per Burrito |
| El Monterey Egg, Sausage, Cheese & Potato (8ct) | Kroger, $10.19 | $1.27 |
| Artisan Bistro Egg, Cheese, & Bacon (1 each) | Meijer, $4.29 | $4.29 |
| Feel Good Foods Bacon, Egg, Cheese Pockets (2 ct) | Fresh Thyme, $8.09 | $4.04 |
| El Monterey Breakfast Wrap, Egg, Potato, Cheese Sauce & Sausage (1 each) | Dollar Tree, $1.25 | $1.25 |
| Red’s Turkey Sausage, Egg & Three Cheese Breakfast Burrito (10 ct) | Costco, $19.27 | $1.92 |
| Sweet Earth Baja Breakfast Burrito (1 each) | Target, $3.79 | $3.79 |
| Evol Egg And Green Chile Burrito (1 each) | Lucky’s Market, $3.79 | $3.79 |
| El Monterey Burritos, Egg, Sausage, Cheese & Potato (8 ct) | Publix, $14.39 | $1.79 |
| El Monterey Egg, Potato, Cheese Sauce & Sausage Breakfast Wraps (8 ct) | Family Dollar, $6.39 | $0.79 |
| Jimmy Dean Breakfast Burritos Meat Lovers (4 ct) | Albertson, $10.39 | $2.59 |
| Tina’s Egg, Potato, Cheese Sauce & Sausage Breakfast Wraps (8 ct) | Walmart, $5.98 | $0.74 |
| Average Cost a Frozen Breakfast Burrito: | $2.38 |
We checked multiple brands and different stores all over the US to compile this list of frozen burritos. We figured out the cost per burrito and some were as high as $4.29 each at Meijer.
The lowest cost per breakfast burrito we found was at Walmart and the Tina’s brand for $0.74 each. This would be a great alternative if you don’t have the time to make your own burritos at home!
Overall, the average cost of a frozen breakfast burrito was $2.38 making it about 50% higher than the $1.18 cost of a homemade burrito.
Are homemade breakfast burritos worth it?
If we are just looking at the cost of breakfast burritos, then in most cases it is much cheaper to make your own! There were a few options that came out cheaper like at Walmart and Family Dollar. There are also other factors to consider:
- Pick your own Ingredients– you can literally pick whatever you want to put in your burritos.
- Buy your ingredients on sale– another way to lower your cost, is to buy ingredients like sausage links, bacon, or chopped ham when it is on sale.
- Switch it Up– grocery stores only offer so many flavor options, but at home you can create a ton of different combinations.
- Healthier– All frozen processed foods have tons of sodium and preservatives added to them to extend their shelf life. When you make them at home you get to control what seasonings and salt gets added to the burritos.
- Lower Calories- a typical frozen burrito has about 450 calories, but you can drastically lower this by picking lower calorie ingredients like egg whites and turkey sausage.
Overall, I think it is a very wise choice to make a large batch of burritos at home and freeze them. Then whenever you want a breakfast burrito, you can pop them in the microwave just like the grocery store ones.
I am going to start making double and triple batches of burritos on a Saturday or Sunday, so I have enough for the month. This will not only save me money but time by making them all at once instead of every week!
For more cost breakdowns of buying versus making, check out “Is it Cheaper to Make or Buy Enchilada Sauce? and “Cheaper to Make or Buy a Pumpkin Pie?“
