I need help with this word problem. A pet store owner wants to mix together an high quality dry cat food costing 1.10 per pound with a lower quality dry cat food costing 0.85 per pound. How many pounds of each should be mixed together in order to produce 40 pounds of a mixture costing 0.95 per pound? I think I know how to start part of the problem but I am stuck on the second part of the problem. This is what I have gotten so far: $$1.10x+0.85y= $$ Is this the right approach to this problem?

Try working with the two equations, in two unknowns:

You can finish your first equation (sum of cost of more expensive food (x pounds at a cost of $1.10$) and the cost of the leass expensive food (y pounds at a cost of .85 per pound) by noting we want a _total of $40$ pounds costing 0.95 per pound_ for a total cost of $.95\times 40$:

$$1.10x+0.85y= 0.95\times 40\tag{1}$$

The number of total pounds needed is the sum of the weights, in pounds, given by $x + y$: $$x + y = 40\tag{2}$$