3rd Grade Change and Total Cost Worksheet: Money Word Problems

Shopping is full of money questions. This 3rd grade change and total cost worksheet gives your child three money word problems to solve. First, Belta buys groceries for $10.79 and pays with a twenty-dollar bill, so your child works out her change. After that, Peter buys three things to make a pizza, and John and Lucy pay for their dinner. In these two stories, your child adds the prices to find the total cost. Page two is the answer key, where every problem is solved in neat columns.

The three answers, checked step by step

We worked out every answer again from the stories on page one. Belta gets $9.21 in change, because $20.00 minus $10.79 is $9.21. Peter spends $7.80, and the dinner costs $26.15 altogether.

We fixed the original page before we shared it. In the first story, Belta paid with a fifteen-dollar bill, but there is no $15 bill in US money, so she now pays with a $20 bill. The column also showed a plus sign where it needed a minus sign. In the second story, the key copied $2.76 instead of $2.67 and called Peter she. Now every amount has two decimal places, like $7.80.

At the table: add or subtract?

Before your child calculates anything, ask one question: does the money go up or down in this story? When someone pays and gets money back, we subtract to find the change. When someone buys several things, we add the prices to find the total cost.

Next, your child lines up the dollars and the cents in columns, with the decimal points one under the other. Then they add or subtract from the right, just as with whole numbers. Adding and subtracting money is a good review in grade 3. If the decimal point is new for your child, they can first count in cents, so $10.79 becomes 1,079 cents.

After the page: a pretend shop

Set up a small shop at home with a few objects and price tags, such as $2.50 for a book. Your child buys two things and adds the prices, and after that they pay with a pretend $10 or $20 bill while you count the change together. Swap roles after a few rounds, so your child becomes the cashier. Making change this way, by adding and subtracting money, shows why we line up the cents, and mistakes become part of the game.