A boutique owner paid a total of $1500 for some shirts and some vests. He paid $500 less for the shirts than the vests. Each shirt cost $15 less than each vest. The number of shirts he bought was ⁴₅ of the number of vests bought.

1. How much did he pay for all the shirts?
2. How many shirts did he buy?

	Shirts	Vests	Difference in cost	Number of items in 1 set
Number of sets	4	5
Total cost	$500	$1000
Cost of 1 set	500 ÷ 4 = $125	1000 ÷ 5 = $200	200 - 125 = $75
Cost of each item	1 u	1 u + $15	$15	75 ÷ 15 = 5

(a)
Total amount = $1500
Total amount spent on shirts = (1500 - 500) ÷ 2 = $500
Total amount spent on vests = 500 + 500 = $1000

Amount that he paid for all the shirts = $500

(b)
4 sets of shirts = $500
5 sets of vests = $1000

1 set of shirts = 500 ÷ 4 = $125
1 set of vests = 1000 ÷ 5 = $200

Difference in the amount paid for each set of vests and shirts
= 200 - 125
= $75

The extra $75 is due to each vest costing $15 more than each shirt.

Number of shirts in 1 set
= 75 ÷ 15
= 5

Number of shirts that he bought
= 4 sets of shirts
= 4 x 5
= 20

Answer(s): (a) $500; (b) 20