Eat the burger, skip the beer.

That’s the best advice for Americans looking to hold down the cost of this year’s Memorial Day cookout.

The 20 items for a 12-person gathering will cost a total of $229.39, just 57 cents more than the same spread cost last year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And it would have been less had beer not bloated the barbecue budget by costing $2.58 more than it did a year ago.

Two 24-packs of Bud — with a price hike of 4 percent — made this year’s bill for our overall cost 0.25 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Ground beef, which at $4.79 a pound is the cheapest it has been in two years, produced a savings of $1.59 — or 10 percent — for the 3 pounds of patties destined for the grill.

Red onions, potato chips, watermelon and slow-churned ice cream were dearer, collectively boosting this year’s tally by $1.80.

The biggest change was the cost of gas necessary to get us to and from our holiday destination, which AAA Travel estimates to be 50 miles away for traveling Americans.

Unleaded regular’s 14 percent price decline from a year ago saved us $1.49 at the pump.

Also easing the burden were buns for burgers (down 3 percent), chicken (down 7 percent) and hot dogs (down 2 percent).

As for the other items on our shopping list — cheese, coleslaw, corn, ketchup, lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, pickles, soda and tomatoes — their prices were practically unchanged.