1. **State the problem:** Four friends attend a school play and each pays 6 per ticket. Each also buys a Healthy Snack Bag costing $b$ each. The total amount spent is 34. We need to find the cost of each Healthy Snack Bag, $b$. 2. **Write the equation:** Let $b$ be the cost of one Healthy Snack Bag. Total cost for tickets = $4 \times 6 = 24$ Total cost for snack bags = $4 \times b = 4b$ Total spent = cost of tickets + cost of snack bags $$24 + 4b = 34$$ 3. **Solve the equation:** Subtract 24 from both sides: $$24 + 4b - 24 = 34 - 24$$ $$\cancel{24} + 4b - \cancel{24} = 10$$ $$4b = 10$$ Divide both sides by 4: $$\frac{4b}{\cancel{4}} = \frac{10}{\cancel{4}}$$ $$b = \frac{10}{4}$$ Simplify the fraction: $$b = \frac{5}{2} = 2.5$$ 4. **Answer:** Each Healthy Snack Bag costs $2.5$. This means each friend spent 6 on the ticket and 2.5 on the snack bag, totaling 8.5 each, and $8.5 \times 4 = 34$ total.