Question

You need to buy some chicken for dinner tonight. You found an ad showing that the store across town has it on sale for $2.89 a pound, which is cheaper than your usual neighborhood store, which sells it for $3.29 a pound. Is it worth the extra drive?

First, determine what information you need to answer this question, then click here to display that info (along with other info).

Going to the close store is cheaper
Going to the further store is cheaper
The cheaper option saves you $_____?

Answer 1

Let's compare chicken costs:

$3.19 * 6 = $19.14 (far store)

$3.39 * 6 = $20.34 (near store)

Now let's look at how much it costs to travel in your car:

$3.78/g / 20m/g → $3.78/20m = $0.189 per mile

Next, let's look how much it costs to travel to each store from the gas used. Multiply by 2 because you not only have to drive there, but also back home for the round trip:

8.7 miles * 2 = 17.4 miles

2.3 miles * 2 = 2.6 miles

Now to find the cost of gas for the respective trips:

$.189/mi * 17.4 mi = $3.2886 → $3.29

$.189/mi * 2.6 mi = $0.4914 → $0.49

We can just eyeball it from here that it's not worth it to travel, but for completion's sake, let's add the gas and chicken costs together:

$19.14 + $3.19 = $22.33 to the far store

$20.34 + $0.49 = $20.83 to the near store