Question

In January, David began putting the same amount of money each month into his savings account. In February, he had $85 in his account (not including interest). By June, he had $135 in his account (not including interest). How much money was in the savings account before David began saving each month?

Answer 1

David had $72.50 in his savings account before he began his monthly deposits. To determine this, we calculated the total increase over four months and found the monthly savings amount, then subtracted one such deposit from the February balance.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve how much money was in David's savings account before he began saving each month, we can use the information given about his account balance increases over the months. David started with an unknown amount of money, which we'll call X. Every month, he adds the same amount of money to his account. In February, his balance was $85, and by June, it became $135. Since February to June spans four months (including February and June), and since we're not including interest in this calculation, we can calculate the monthly savings amount.

First, we find the total increase over these four months: $135 - $85 = $50. To find the monthly savings amount, we divide this increase by the number of months: $50 ÷ 4 = $12.50 per month.

Since February's balance includes one month's savings, we can deduce the initial balance (before David started saving) by subtracting the monthly savings amount from the February balance: $85 - $12.50 = $72.50.

Therefore, David had $72.50 in his savings account before he began saving each month.