Sandy is trying to reconstruct her spending pattern from July. She knows that she had $277 in her account on July 1, but after that, her receipts and balance statements are all scrambled. Here are Sandy’s records:

Question

Date
Transaction Type
Amount ($)
7/26
Purchase
86
7/25
Deposit
76
7/4
Purchase
137
7/6
Deposit
90
7/10
Purchase
131
7/9
Purchase
145
7/15
Deposit
152
7/19
Purchase
137

Assuming that this is a complete, if scrambled, record of Sandy’s July spending and that any overdraft fees incurred do not affect the running total, how many times did Sandy overdraw her account in July?
a.
Sandy never overdrew her account.
b.
Sandy only overdrew her account once.
c.
Sandy overdrew her account twice.
d.
Sandy overdrew her account more than twice.

Answer 1

To determine how many times Sandy overdraw her account in July, we can recreate her account balance step by step using the transactions provided, while keeping track of her balance at each step.

Starting balance on July 1: $277

1. July 4: Purchase of $137
   New balance: $277 - $137 = $140

2. July 6: Deposit of $90
   New balance: $140 + $90 = $230

3. July 9: Purchase of $145
   New balance: $230 - $145 = $85

4. July 10: Purchase of $131
   New balance: $85 - $131 = -$46 (overdraft)

5. July 15: Deposit of $152
   New balance: -$46 + $152 = $106

6. July 19: Purchase of $137
   New balance: $106 - $137 = -$31 (overdraft again)

7. July 25: Deposit of $76
   New balance: -$31 + $76 = $45

8. July 26: Purchase of $86
   New balance: $45 - $86 = -$41 (overdraft once more)

Now we can summarize the overdrafts:

• First overdraft happens after the purchase on July 10 (balance drops to -$46).
• Second overdraft happens after the purchase on July 19 (balance drops to -$31).
• Third overdraft happens after the purchase on July 26 (balance drops to -$41).

From the above steps, we see that Sandy overdrew her account three times in total.

Thus, the answer is d. Sandy overdrew her account more than twice.