Materiais variances Cinturon Corporation produces high-quality leather belts. The company's plant in Boise uses a standard costing system and has set the following standards for materials and labor: During the first month of the year, the Boise plant produced 92,000 belts. Actual leather purchased was 289,500 strips at $3.60 per strip. There were no beginning or ending inventories of leather. Actual direct labor was 79,900 hours at $18.00 per hour. Required: 1. Break down the total variance for materials into a price variance and a usage variance using the columnar and formula approaches. Enter favorable values as negative numbers and unfavorable values as positive numbers. 2. Conceptual Connection: Suppose the Boise plant manager investigates the materials variances and is told by the purchasing manager that a cheaper source of strips had been discovered and that this is the reason for the favorable materials price variance. Quite pleased, the purchasing manager suggests that the materials price