Functional Skills: Money

Example 1: Converting Units – (Pounds and Pence)

Bridie is buying stationary for school. She buys some pens for $boldsymbol{£2.60}$, some pencils for $boldsymbol{90}$p and a rubber for $boldsymbol{45}$p. How much did she spend in total?

[2 marks]

First, change the price of the pencils and the rubber into pounds.

$90$p $=£0.90$

$45$p $=£0.45$

Now, all the units are the same we can calculate the total cost of the stationary:

$£2.60+£0.90+£0.45=£3.95$

So, Bridie spent $£3.95$

Example 2: Money Calculations Without a Calculator

Kelsie wants to buy a new sofa. She is going to sell her old one for $£65$ and then buy a new one for $£349$.

What is the price difference between the two sofas?

[2 marks]

To find the price difference you will need to subtract the price of her old sofa from the price of the new one.

The best method for this is the subtraction column method:

Therefore, there is a $£284$ difference between the two sofas.

Example 3: Money Calculations With a Calculator

Kyra is buying the ingredients for her sister’s birthday cake. Here is what she bought:

• Flour – $£0.60$
• Sugar – $£0.55$
• Half a dozen eggs – $£0.79$
• Icing Sugar – $£1.10$
• Jam – $£1.25$

Work out how much she spent.

[2 marks]

So, she spent $£4.29$

Example 4: Rounding 

a) Caleb buys a book for $£8.89$. How much is the book to the nearest pound?

b) Katie buys a chocolate bar with her pocket money at the corner shop, it costs $64$p. How much is the price of the chocolate bar to the nearest $boldsymbol{10}$p?

[2 marks]

a) We can see that the pence in the value of the book is $89$p.

$89$p is more than $50$p, so round up to the next pound.

Therefore, the book costs $£9$ to the nearest pound.

b) The last digit of $64$ is $4$, which is less than $5$.

This means we round down to the $10$p below, so the chocolate bar costs $60$p to the nearest $10$p.

Example 5: Estimating

Isabella buys a hat for $£11.09$, a scarf for $£8.98$ and a pair of shoes for $£24.75$. Estimate how much she spent in total.

[2 marks]

For this example we are going to round each value to the nearest pound.

$£11.09$ rounds to $£11$ to the nearest pound.

$£8.98$ rounds to $£9$ to the nearest pound.

$£24.75$ rounds to $£25$ to the nearest pound.

So an estimate for the total amount she spent would be:

$£11+£9+£25=boldsymbol{£45}$