March is the month of all things green: leprechauns, four-leaf clovers and McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes, a fast food staple since 1970. 

However, the iconic milkshake is not worth the midnight trip to McDonald’s when considering the cost and taste of a homemade version.

Making one at home is quite simple, and you may already have some ingredients on hand. 

Blend two cups of ice cream, three-fourths of a cup of milk, a quarter-teaspoon of mint extract and green food coloring to achieve the desired color as instructed by food blog dinneratthezoo.com.

Of course, there’s no shame in an extra scoop of ice cream or two. 

Last, top the homemade Shamrock Shake with a hearty serving of whipped cream.

The flavor is immaculate — it’s cool, creamy and minty.

According to mcdonalds.com, the Shamrock Shake is a blend of vanilla reduced-fat soft serve ice cream; Shamrock Shake Syrup, an ominous title for mint syrup; and whipped light cream.

Weirdly enough, Great Value whipped cream is miles ahead of McDonald’s whipped cream.

It makes McDonald’s whipped cream seem unpleasantly buttery as opposed to fluffy and creamy.

This may explain why the original taste drastically differs from the homemade one.

The flavor of reduced-fat ingredients, while usually decent, never quite compares to the lusciousness of its full-fat friends.

Also, the Shamrock Shake stood no chance against real ice cream. Soft serve is lighter and softer, but It’s also cheaper and contains less milk fat than regular ice cream.

The store-bought mint extract tasted less artificial, and unlike the McDonald’s shake, the bitterness of food dye didn’t meet the tongue.

Grab a pen, paper and a calculator. It’s time to tap into your inner mathematician.

The Walmart website says a tub of Great Value vanilla ice cream is $2.48, which is 5.2 cents per fluid ounce. 

If one cup is equivalent to eight fluid ounces, and the recipe called for two cups, that means the price of ice cream in the milkshake is 83 cents.

Great Value milk is 2.8 cents per fluid ounce; the recipe called for three-fourths of a cup. Do some conversions and multiplication and boom … 17 cents. 

McCormick green food coloring costs roughly 10 cents, and the mint extract costs 0.10 cents. 

Finally, the whipped cream costs 53.6 cents.

Add it all up, and there’s a stark contrast in cost, considering a large McDonald’s Shamrock Shake is $5.19, and the homemade rendition is $1.64.

While this may be one lighthearted example of the value cooking at home yields, this applies to most other fast food products or dine in restaurant meals. 

Eat smarter, not harder. Next time your stomach takes you to the drive-thru, consider the cost more — you’ll end up more satisfied and less broke.

Although the homemade Shamrock Shake may not be complete without a serving of golden, crispy fries, it’ll do your wallet and taste buds a favor.