Question

Heather and Joel are setting up a new budget. They have decided that the ratio of spending to saving needs to be 5:2. They spent a total of $4,231 and put $2538.60 in their savings account for the month. How much should they have saved?

a) $1,599.60
b) $2,116.80
c) $2,538.60
d) $3,656.40

Answer 1

Heather and Joel should have saved $1,692.40.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how much Heather and Joel should have saved, we need to use the given ratio of spending to saving, which is 5:2. This means that for every $5 they spend, they should save $2.

We know that they spent a total of $4,231, so to find out how much they should have saved, we can set up the following equation:

$5 spent : $2 saved = $4,231 spent : x saved

Cross-multiplying, we get:

$5 * x = $2 * $4,231

Simplifying, we get:

x = ($2 * $4,231) / $5

x = $8,462 / $5

x = $1,692.40

So Heather and Joel should have saved $1,692.40.