Question

Keisha is planning an event for her company. It will take place the 3rd Saturday of May, and will be four hours long. There will be 35 employees at the event, and each can bring one guest She must make arrangements for venue, décor, food, beverages and entertainment She has a budget of $3,000. After researching available options, she has developed the following list of possible vendors. Décor A: $300, Décor B. $500, Décor C. $750 Food A: $15 per person, Food B: $18 per person, Food C. 5800 Beverage A: 53 per person, Beverage B: 55 per person, Beverage C: $500 Entertainment A: 516 per person; Entertainment B: $1,000; Entertainment C: $1,500 She now needs to decide what to buy and who to hire in order to stay under budget. In order to further guard against going over budget, she has decided to leave herself 10 percent of the budget for a contingency fund. Assuming all vendors listed above are of similar quality, how should she decide among vendors? If her boss is not pleased by her initial choice, is there another under-budget combination of vendors she can suggest?

Answer 1

Keisha has a budget of $3,000 to set up an event for her company. She decided to guard against going over budget, she left 10% of the budget for a contingency fund. This leaves a budget of $3,000 - 10*3000/100 = $2,700.

Now analyze the possible vendors, considering it's expected to have 70 people attending the event (35 employees + 35 guests).

Vendor A has the following cost scheme:

Décor: $300

Food: $15 per person * 70 = $1,050

Beverage: $53 per person * 70 = $3,710

Entertainment: $516 per person * 70 = $36,120

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Vendor B has the following cost scheme:

Décor: $500

Food: $18 per person * 70 = $1,260

Beverage: $55 per person * 70 = $3,850

Entertainment: $1,000

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Vendor C has the following cost scheme:

Décor: $750

Food: $5,800

Beverage: $500

Entertainment: $1,500

Since all vendors are of the same quality, Keisha should pick the cheapest choice for each item, that is:

Decor (From vendor A): $300

Food (From vendor A): $1,050

Beverage (From vendor C): $500

Entertainment (From vendor B): $1,000

Total budget: $300+$1,050+$500+$1000=$2,850

This is a valid option. She goes over her safe budget, but she can use part of that funds.

If her boss is not pleased by her choice above, we could try to replace some of the options with a more expensive item such that the total budges is not exceeded.

I cannot find any other combination of items that does not exceed the $3,000 limit, thus the presented combination is the only one that fulfills the conditions.