McDonald’s Brings Back Extra Value Meals with $5 Breakfast, $8 Dinner Options

Starting September 8, McDonald's will bring back Extra Value Meals, giving customers a 15% discount when buying items together instead of one by one.

After taking a six-year break, the fast-food chain's meal deals are coming back with $5 breakfast options and $8 lunch and dinner combos. "We're laser-focused on delivering value and affordability," said Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald's USA, to TODAY.com.

The combo meal idea came from a clever employee in the Bay Area back in 1991. Their simple plan to group menu items together made drive-thru lines move faster and helped sell more food, quickly catching on across the country.

Each meal comes with a main item, sides, and a drink. Running from September through November, these deals are the company's newest way to attract customers watching their spending.

This move follows other money-saving deals from the burger chain. They started a $5 Meal Deal in 2024, then brought out the McValue menu in January 2025, letting customers add an extra item for just a dollar.

The chain's budget-friendly menu approach goes back years. In 2002, they started the Dollar Menu nationwide. Later they offered the McPick 2 for $2 in 2016, then an Extra Value Menu in 2012.

When combo meals first showed up in restaurants in the 1990s, commercials promoted them as ways for families to save money. The idea worked so well that competitors like Taco Bell, In-N-Out, and Wendy's started doing the same thing.

To keep prices down while competing with other value menus, McDonald's leaders said they would help franchise owners handle the costs, according to The Wall Street Journal.