Sam wants to buy 8 pencils and 6 pens, which cost a total of $8.50. He realizes he doesn't have enough cash and instead takes only 4 of each, which costs only $5. What is the price of each pen and pencil?

Let x be the price of each pen and y be the price of each pencil. From the given, the equations that are described are,

6x + 8y = 8.50

4x + 4y = 5

Solving for x and y simultaneously gives an answer of x = 0.75 and y = 0.5.

Thus, each pen costs $0.75 and each pencil costs $0.50.