A mum gift......or.....Menu and shopping list for 10/17-10/20

This paycheck is really tight. I mean, really tight. I made a menu for the next few days and I had $50 to buy it all. Here's my menu:

10/17 Thursday
Breakfast: French Toast
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Tator Tot Casserole

10/18 Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Fruit
Lunch: Sauercraut and Sausages (sauercraut I bought on clearance a few weeks ago, sausages are left over from a meal last pay period)
Dinner: Hot Dogs, Baked Beans, Potato Salad, S'mores (we're going to "camp" in the backyard)

10/19 Saturday
Breakfast: Biscuits and Gravy
Dinner: Shrimp Scampii (we didn't make the Black Bean, Corn, and Shrimp Tacos last week, so the shrimp is left over)

10/20 Sunday
Breakfast: Muffins
Lunch: Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots, Rolls
Dinner: Leftovers

Here is my shopping list:

coffee                                             $2.79
creamer                                          $2.29
oatmeal                                          $2.29
juice                                               $1.39
hot dogs                                         $1.50
baked beans                                    $1.00
graham crackers                             $1.49
eggs                                                $1.39
sugar                                               $1.89
tea                                                   $1.99
milk                                                 $2.69
marshmallows                                $1.80
chocolate bars                                $1.49
green beans x3                                $1.50
cream of mushroom soup  x2          $1.20
roast                                              $10.81
carrots                                           $1.29
noodles                                          $1.69
broccoli                                         $1.49

I tried to plan the menu off of things I already had at home, so I could spend as little as possible!

So here's how my "gift" came to happen. As we were halfway done going through Aldi (my favorite grocery store) I saw that they had Mums for sale again, for $4.99. I wanted one last time they had them, but they were out before I got there. I turned to Kayla, my 9 year old that went with me, and said, "If we get all of our groceries and I have $5 left, I am going to buy a Mum." She looked at me like I was crazy, but we went on.

I had figured out prices while I was making my list, so I knew we were hopefully going to be right around $50. We got all of our groceries, stood in line, and then finally the lady started checking our groceries.

The total came to....


Wait for it....

$44.99!!

I almost started crying in Aldi. So I went ahead and paid for a Mum, Kayla and I bagged up the groceries, then I picked out my Mum. I was so excited!

I have teared up about 4 times thinking about it. God is so good to think of something so little, but allow me to be able to get it. So I have it sitting outside my door, a testament to God's love for me.

My husband, of course, said something to the effect of, "We can't eat a Mum, can we?" but whatever!