In this activity, we will find the total spent and then use the shopkeeper's method to work out the change by 'counting on'.

Example

I have a £10 note and spend £6.44 on a DVD and £0.99 on a pencil.

How much change will I get?

Answer

First, we must add £6.44 and £0.99.

Here, we pretend that the pencil costs £1 and then take off 1p.

Total = £6.44 + £1.00 - £0.01 = £7.44 - £0.01 = £7.43

Using the diagram, we count on to convenient amounts of money to find the change. 

This is known as the shopkeeper's method.

Add the red amounts to get the total change of    £2.57

Does that make sense? 

Let's have a go at some questions now.