Complex Multi-step equation word problem. Need help!?

A telemarketer makes calls from her home. She earns $240 per month plus a commission of 5% on her sales. Her employer also reimburses her for long distance telephone charges for calls made for the company. Last month she received a check for $256.65, which included a reimbursement of $8.95. What was the total of her sales? (USE THE $ DOLLAR SYMBOL IN YOUR ANSWER)


Thank you =)

256.65-8.98=247.67-240
=7.67/.05=$153.40 in sales

256.65 - 8.95 - 240 = Money made of sales
Money made of sales = 7.7
she gets a 5% commision therefore $7.7 is 5% of her total sales so

7.7/5% = 7.7/ (5/100) = 7.7 / 0.05 =$154
therefore her total sales were $154

$ 154

If this problem is challenging for you, you should break it down into pieces.

So what do you want to know? You want to know her sales. Let us say X stands for her sales. What do we know about her sales? She gets paid a 5% commission on her sales. Lets call her total pay Y.

Y=X*0.05 + (Other Compensation)

OK so far? Now what does other compensation amount to?

She gets paid for her phone calls. Call it P. She gets paid a monthly amount. Call it S for salary. So:

Y=X*0.05 + P + S

Now you have an equation with one unknown. Use the rules of algebra to solve for X, and plug in the numbers for the values you know.

Easy yes?