 Just a slight increase. Megan Schweitzer tracks food prices for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And each year at this time, one of her jobs is to track the cost of your standard homemade cheeseburger and compare it to years past. So here are the ingredients. First, a quarter pound of ground beef, of course. And then a slice of cheddar cheese, slice of tomato, slice of lettuce and bread for the bun.