SAVING MONEY WITH MATH
Imagine that you’re having some friends over after school to work on your
math homework. Your teacher has given you $10.00 to go to Jitney Jungle
and buy one 12-pack of soft drinks, one bag of chips, and one box of cookies.
Pick the type of soft drink, chips, and cookies you like best and add up how
much money you spent on snacks.
Your Soft Drink:___________
Bag of Chips:
___________
Box of Cookies: ___________
Total 1:
___________
Can you afford all three of your purchases with $10.00?
=
$10.00
_____ (Total 1)
_____ (Your Change)
(If you can’t afford your items, you’re going to have to swap something out!)
Now, think about this: a 12-pack of Jitney Gold soft drinks costs $2.49. If
you bought Jitney Gold instead, how much money would you have spent?
Jitney Gold:
___________
Bag of Chips:
___________
Box of Cookies: ___________
Total 2:
___________
So, how much money did you save by buying “generic” soft drinks instead of
“name brand” soft drinks?
Total 1:
- Total 2:
___________
___________
Savings 1:
___________
Let’s say that “generic” potato chips cost $0.99 a bag at Jitney. What if
you bought “generic” chips instead of “name brand” chips?
Your Soft Drink:___________
Generic Chips: ___________
Box of Cookies: ___________
Total 3:
___________
How much money did you save this time?
Total 1:
- Total 3:
___________
___________
Savings 2:
___________
Are you noticing a trend here? Let’s see what would happen if you bought
“generic” cookies instead of “name brand” cookies at $0.99 a bag.
Your Soft Drink:___________
Your Chips:
___________
Generic Cookies: ___________
Total 4:
___________
How much money did you save this time?
Total 1:
- Total 4:
___________
___________
Savings 3:
___________
Let’s see how much money you would have saved if you had bought all of the
cheaper snacks instead of the more expensive snacks:
Savings 1:
Savings 2:
Savings 3:
__________
__________
__________
Total Savings:
__________
Now, you may think that saving a couple of dollars isn’t worth all that
trouble. After all, you can’t buy very much with just that amount of money.
But what if you saved that much money every time you went to the grocery
store? Let’s pretend that over the next few months, you go to the store and
buy study snacks 20 times. (That’s about twice a week for three months.)
How much money would you save if you bought generic soft drinks, chips, and
cookies every time?
Total Savings:
BIGTIME Savings:
_________
x 20
_________
That is amazing! Look at the “Long Term Goals.” Is there anything there
you would like to buy with all the money you would be saving? Try to
calculate how long it would take you to save up enough money to buy it: