How much do the five people spend in total?

Question

Five people are queueing to pay for Christmas presents.

Ali is spending £33 more than Bella and Bella is spending £26 less than Catherine.

Esther spends £7 more than Dylan and Catherine spends £12 more than Esther.

Bella and Esther spend £78 between them.
How much do the five people spend in total?

Answer 1

They spend 240.
.
The clues are:
A = B + 33
B = C - 26
E = D + 7
C = E + 12
B + E = 78
Rewrite to:
B = 78 - E
E = C -12
C = B + 26
E = B + 26 - 12
E = 78 - E + 26 - 12
2E = 92 => E = 46
Calculate the rest.
A = 65
B = 32
C = 58
D = 39
E = 46