Is Making An Italian Sub At Home Actually Cheaper?

There's a reason fast-food sub shops like Subway and Jersey Mike's are so popular. Within minutes, customers can get a sandwich made exactly how they want it — sometimes even on freshly baked bread or with deli meat sliced to order — for around $10. It feels like a great deal, but is it actually?

To find out, Mashed recreated Italian subs from three chains, Subway, Jersey Mike's, and Jimmy John's, with ingredients from a normal grocery store. We found that you can save about $4 to $6 per sandwich by making it yourself with store-bought ingredients rather than buying it from a quick-serve restaurant. Also of note: Some grocery stores have their own house-made Italian subs that also beat fast food chain prices. That said, if a convenient quick meal is top priority, visiting a sub restaurant is the way to go.

There's another important caveat here. Generally, grocery stores don't sell ingredients for subs in small enough quantities to make just one sandwich. You'd have to buy a larger package and only use part of it (we adjusted the cost here to reflect what you'd actually use). In practical terms, this makes purchasing a single sandwich from a sub shop a more straightforward option. If the goal is subs for the whole family, you're better off buying the ingredients and preparing them at home.

A Subway in Worcester, Massachusetts, sells a 6-inch BMT (the chain's Italian sub) for $6.29 with pepperoni, salami, ham, and provolone. The cost for approximately the same amount of those ingredients at a Shaw's supermarket in Worcester comes to $3.44. The exact cost of condiments and vegetables varies based on what you choose to add (our BMT copycat recipe uses lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and mayonnaise). The cost of those add-ons, generally used in small quantities, would still keep the grocery store price below Subway's.

Jimmy John's is a similar deal. Its 8-inch Italian Night Club with salami, capicola, smoked ham, provolone, and condiments costs $9.99 in Worcester. Those ingredients total just $3.57 at Shaw's. At Jersey Mike's Worcester location, a regular Original Italian sub (around 7 to 7½ inches) rings at $11.50. This version has more meat than the others — ham, prosciuttini, capicola, salami, and pepperoni alongside provolone — bringing its total cost at Shaw's to $6.24. In both cases, the negligible cost of vegetable toppings and condiments keeps the supermarket items far more affordable than the restaurant cost.

If you're at the supermarket, check out its deli counter, too. Shaw's sells an Italian Super Sub for around $9, but at 36 ounces, this beast weighs in at nearly five times the size of Subway's 6-inch. Across town at Big Y, a standard 8-inch Italian sub costs $7. So whether you're making it from scratch or looking for a premade option, the grocery store is likely your most economical stop for a sub.