A shopper is shopping at a store with a sale advertised in the front window. The total at the cash register comes to $186, but the shopper pays $158.10 after the sale percentage is applied. What percent did the shopper save on their purchase because of the sale?

Question

A shopper is shopping at a store with a sale advertised in the front window. The total at the cash register comes to $186,  but the shopper pays $158.10 after the sale percentage is applied. What percent did the shopper save on their purchase because of the sale?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The question asks us to find out what percent discount she received from the sale. To solve we need to do two things:
Calculate the amount she saved (in dollars).
Calculate the percentage of those savings out of the whole.
First, let's calculate her savings. We do this by subtracting the amount she actually spent from the original total.
$186.00 - $158.10 = $27.90
Now we can calculate the savings as a percent. We know she saved $27.90 out of the original $186.00 so we have:
$27.90/$186.00
We can quickly simplify this fraction by dividing the numerator by the denominator.
27.9/186 = 0.15
Now, our answer is a decimal. We know that we can convert from decimals to percentages by multiplying the decimal by 100.
0.15 × 100 = 15%
So, 27.9 is 15% of 186.
The original amount of the purchase was $186.00 and she received $27.90 off which was 15%
Note: If you got 85%, you calculated the percent she spent. However, we are asked for the percent she saved.

A Shopper Is Shopping at a Store with a Sale