Anniversary Meal

Five men took their wives out for a meal the other night as it was their wedding anniversary. Each man spent a different amount on the meal and each wife was wearing a different coloured dress. From the clues below can you work out who was married to whom, what was the colour of the wife’s dress and how much each man spent on the meal. To help you I have provided 2 tables below with which to record your deductions.

1. Andy’s wife’s dress was blue, but he didn’t spend £50 on the meal.

2. Sam was wearing a beautiful white dress. Her husband spent more than £10 on the meal.

3. The man whose wife’s dress was green spent more than Eric, but less than Linda’s husband.

4. Neeta’s husband must have been feeling really guilty about something as he spent £50 on the meal!

5. As Bob is currently unemployed, he could only afford to take his wife to the local chippie, where the meal cost £10. He is not married to Alice.

6. Carl wife’s dress was not red, nor did he spend £30 on the meal.

Men: Andy, Bob, Carl, Dave, Eric

Wives: Alice, Linda, Naomi, Neeta, Sam

Dress: Black, Blue, Green, Red, White

Spent: £10, £20, £30, £40, £50

Tips: If you have never done a logic problem before, you may be dismayed by the above. But don’t be! It’s not as difficult as it looks. To give you a start let’s look at the first clue. It says Andy wife’s dress was blue. So on the first grid find the cell at the intersection of Andy and Blue, and put a tick in there. Also because Andy’s wife wasn’t wearing the other coloured dresses, you can put crosses in the ‘Andy’ line in the cells labelled Black, Green, Red and White. Furthermore as none of the other men had a wife with a blue dress, you can put crosses in the ‘Blue’ column against Bob, Carl Dave and Eric. The clue goes on to say that Andy didn’t spend £50. So put a cross in the cell at the intersection of Andy and £50. As Andy’s wife was wearing blue, she didn’t have £50 baht spent on her either, so put a cross at the intersection of Blue and £50. Now look at the other clues and see what information you can derive from them, putting ticks and crosses where appropriate – you may find it useful to use a pencil and have an eraser handy!

In the second table you can record your deductions, so from the first clue you can immediately put Blue as the dress colour for Andy’s wife. Other deductions may have to wait until you have further information.