MBA Econ Utility Problem

You have been hired to help a small private university to assist the snack shop in determining the amount of snacks to keep in the store. All books and basic educational expenses are already covered. The students have money to spend on gas (for cars) and snacks. The organization wants to understand how students allocate money among these two items. A survey was conducted to ask students about tradeoffs of quantities used per week. Gas measured in gallons, and snacks measured in bags. Students were presented with various levels of gasoline and asked how many bags of snack they would need to compensate for a decline of four gallons of gas regardless of price or income level. The following table was created:

This data is representative of average students and seems to apply at a constant rate to proportionately higher and lower levels of consumption.

Say gasoline costs $3/gallon and snacks are $1.50 a bag.

1. If students have a budget total of $45 per week, how many snacks and gallons of gas will be purchased?
2. If the price of gas decreases to $2.25/gallon, how many snacks and gallons of gas will be purchased?
3. If the price of gas remains at $3 but the budget is increased to $75/week, how many snacks and gallons of gas will be purchased?
4. Using the three scenarios and assuming 5,000 students shop at the snack store. What is the level of snacks that might be purchased each week from the store?