Farm Stall Budget

Every Saturday, the farm set up a little stall by the road. This week, Little Thunder was in charge.

"I'm the shopkeeper," he announced, straightening his LT shirt. "Spike, you're the stock manager. Suzy, you're the money manager."

On the table were eggs, honey, lemons and bunches of fresh herbs. Suzy wrote the prices on a chalkboard: eggs six dollars a dozen, honey eight dollars a jar, lemons fifty cents each.

The first customer was Berlin, a cheerful cow from the next farm. "A dozen eggs and four lemons, please."

Little Thunder counted on his hooves. "Six dollars for the eggs, and four lemons at fifty cents is two dollars. That's eight dollars."

Berlin handed over a ten-dollar note.

"And your change is..." Little Thunder paused.

"Two dollars," whispered Suzy.

"Two dollars!" he said, handing it over with a grin.

By lunchtime the honey was nearly gone. Spike checked his list. "We spent forty dollars on jars and labels this week. We've sold eight jars of honey at eight dollars."

Suzy did the maths. "That's sixty-four dollars. Take away forty, and we've made twenty-four dollars profit on honey."

Then Vienna the cow asked a tricky question. "Is it cheaper to buy one big jar of honey for eight dollars, or two small jars at five dollars each?"

Little Thunder thought hard. "Two small jars cost ten dollars. The big jar is the best buy!"

At the end of the day, they counted the money box together. Every coin matched the list.

"Best stall ever," said Little Thunder. "Next week, can I sell pumpkins too?"