Group Activity Cards

Use groups of 2. Materials: Recipe book, grocery flier, computer, spreadsheet software

Look What's Cooking

As a group, make a menu for your favorite dinner. Assume four people will be eating. Use recipes to determine the ingredients that you will need for the dinner. Next, go to the local grocery store or use a grocery flier to determine the cost of each item. Create a spreadsheet to determine the total cost of the dinner. The spreadsheet will look like the table below. Type each individual item into the Item column. In the Regular Price column or column B, type in the price of each item.

Next, find the sales tax on food in your state. Type this into each cell in column C. Remember to put the sales tax into decimal form. For example, 5% = 0.05. If your state does not have a sales tax, use a 4% sales tax or 0.04. Next calculate the amount of the sales tax. The amount of sales tax is equal to the amount of the items multiplied by the sales tax rate. The amount in column D can be found by multiplying the values in column B by the value in column C. Then find the total cost of the item by entering into column E the formula that will give the sum of B and column D.

Finally, find the total cost of the dinner. Are there any ways that you could save money on your dinner? Try using different fliers and comparing costs.