Adding and subtracting money

​​In a nutshell

Money can be expressed as either pounds ($$£$$​) or pence ($$p$$).  When returning change or summing the total cost of items in a basket, it is vital to know how to correctly calculate the right value, to ensure there is no shortchange on either side of a transaction.

Pounds and pence

You use both pounds and pence to express how much money a person has, or an object's value. Use the following equation to convert between pounds and pence:

​$$£1 = 100p$$

This relationship makes it easy to express the value of any object as you can quickly write down the pounds and pence of an object using this relationship.

Example 1

$$£152.38$$​ represents a value of $$£152$$​ and $$38p$$​.

Adding and subtracting money

Using the decimal point, you can use column addition and column subtraction to find the sum of values of items or the difference in values of items.

Example 2

A book costs $$£9.50$$​, and a newspaper costs $$£2.79$$​. What is the total cost if Jamie wants to buy both a book and a newspaper?

$$9.50 + 2.79 = \underline{£12.29}$$

Jamie uses a $$£20$$ note to pay. How much change should he receive?

$$20 - 12.29 = \underline{£7.71}$$