Mike a salvation army bell ringer, has 5 fewer quarters than nickels is his cup. if mike has $5.95 in quarters and nickels, how many nickels does he have

Let x=number of nickels in Mike's cup
Then x-5=number of quarters in Mike's cup 
Let's now deal in pennies to make life a little more simple. 
5x=amount of money that Mike has from the nickels 
25(x-5)=amount of money that Mike has from the quarters 
We are told that this adds up to 595. So our algebraic equation is: 
5x+25(x-5)=595 get rid of parens (Now as you well know, if we want to deal in dollars, we can just as easily write this equation as:
0.05x+0.25(x-5)=5.95), but lets continue to deal in pennies 
5x+25x-125=595 add 125 to both sides
5x+25x-125+125=595+125 collect like terms 

30x=720 divide both sides by 30
x=24number of nickels 
x-5=24-5=19number of quarters 
CK
24(0.05)+19(0.25)=5.95
1.20+4.75=5.95
5.95=5.95 

Hope this helps