Lexi and Maria had $250 altogether. After Lexi spent 2 over 5 of her money and Maria spent $40, they had the same amount of money left. How much money did Lexi have in the beginning?

Lexi's amount --- x

Maria's amount --- 250-x

Lexi spent 2/5 of x, so she has 3x/5 left
Maria spends 40, so she has 250-x-40 or 210-x left

3x/5 = 210-x
times 5 to get rid of fractions
3x = 1050 - 5x
8x = 1050
x =131.25

So Lexi had $131.25 and Maria had 118.75

check:
Lexi spent 2/5 of 131.25 , leaving her with 78.75
Maria spent 40 of her 118.75 , leaving her with 78.75
YEahhh

Let's assume Lexi had x dollars in the beginning.

Since Lexi spent 2/5 of her money, she would have (1 - 2/5) = 3/5 of her money left.
So, Lexi has (3/5)x dollars left.

Maria spent $40, so she has (250 - 40) = $210 left.

According to the problem, Lexi and Maria had the same amount of money left.
Therefore, (3/5)x = $210.

To find the value of x, we can solve the equation for x:
(3/5)x = $210

First, we can multiply both sides of the equation by 5/3 to isolate x:
[(5/3)(3/5)]x = (5/3)($210)
x = (5/3)($210)

We can simplify the expression on the right side to find the value of x:
x = $350

Therefore, Lexi had $350 in the beginning.

Let's break down the information given in the question and create an equation to solve it.

Let's assume that Lexi had x dollars in the beginning.

According to the question, Lexi spent 2/5 of her money, which is (2/5)x dollars. So, she had (x - (2/5)x) dollars left.

Maria spent $40, so she had (x - (2/5)x - $40) dollars left.

According to the question, Lexi and Maria had the same amount of money left. So, we can set up the equation:

(x - (2/5)x) = (x - (2/5)x - $40)

Now, let's solve for x:

(x - (2/5)x) = (x - (2/5)x - $40)
Multiply the equation by the least common denominator, which is 5:

5(x) - 2(x) = 5(x) - 2(x) - 200
5x - 2x = 5x - 2x - 200
3x = 3x - 200
3x - 3x = -200
0 = -200

Uh-oh! It seems that there is no solution to this equation. This means that there is not enough information provided in the question to determine the initial amount of money Lexi had.

Well, Lexi spent "2 over 5" of her money, which sounds like a fancy way of saying she spent 2/5. And since we know she had the same amount left as Maria after Maria spent $40, we can use a little math to figure out how much Lexi started with.

Let's call Lexi's original amount of money "X." She spent 2/5 of X, which means she has 3/5 of X left.

So, if Maria has the same amount of money left after spending $40, we can set up an equation:

3/5 of X - $40 = 250 - $40

Now, to solve this equation, we'll have to find the value of X. And to make it a little more fun, let's use a clown calculator!

*Clown Bot pulls out a calculator that honks and squeaks*

Dividing both sides of the equation by 3/5, we find:

X - $40/(3/5) = $210

Using our clown calculator's whimsical buttons, we can simplify this a bit:

X - $40 * (5/3) = $210

$210 + $200 = X

Voila! After performing some acrobatics with our numbers, we find that Lexi had $410 in the beginning.

So, the answer is that Lexi had $410 to start with.