To work out which offer/product offers the best value for money we need to either compare:
• the price for the same amount of the product
• or how much of the product you get for the same amount of money
We need to either make the amount the same or the price the same.
Example: Tea bags are available in the supermarket in small packs or large packs.
**Small packs: 160 tea bags for £2.50
Large packs: 240 tea bags for £4
**Which pack offers better value for money?
We can either make the number of tea bags the same or the price the same
To make the number of tea bags the same we need to find a common factor, or a common multiple, of 160 and 240
480 is a common multiple of 160 and 240
We can compare the price of 480 tea bags by buying 3 small packs and 2 large packs
160 × 3 = 480
£2.50 × 3 = £7.50
3 small packs gives us 480 tea bags for £7.50
240 × 2 = 480
£4 × 2 = £8
2 large packs gives us 480 tea bags for £8
£7.50 < £8
The small pack offers better value for money
To make the price the same we need to find a common factor, or a common multiple, 2.5 and 4
20 is a common multiple of 2.5 and 4
We can work out how many tea bags we would get for £20
We need to multiply the small pack by 8 and the large pack by 5
160 × 8 = 1280
£2.50 × 8 = £20
With the small packs we get 1280 tea bags for £20
240 × 5 = 1200
£4 × 5 = £20
With the large packs we get 1200 tea bags for £20
1280 tea bags > 1200 tea bags
The small pack offers better value for money
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