Unusual ways you have gained money

[DionneB]

as we have had the one about money you lost , what about money gained?

i once entered a tombola and won £2 in a jar,

on a train once , a man randomly gave me £40

I was once at a till and thought I’d dropped something out of my purse. There was a £10 note on the floor so I picked it up and felt relieved.

Realised later when I worked out how much I had and how much I’d spent that it wasn’t my £10. But had no way of getting it back.

Paid for my mums lunch with it.

When we took out our first mortgage, I took out life insurance on my husband as he didn't have any. I did.
Last month he got a letter from Avila about his pension. We were confused as we knew he didn't have a pension with Aviva.
After a couple of phone calls, it seemed we didn't actually take out life insurance, but a pension savings scheme that was due to mature. We never really noticed the payments as I always thought it was life insurance, only about £20 a month. He will get a payout of £27000 on his birthday next month!

@Soontobe60 - £27k!!!! Bloody hell!!

Dh found over £1000 buried in jars in the garden of our last house! They were old notes, and some were too damaged by damp, but the bank accepted most of them and we got about £800.

Found a tenner walking back after the school run once.

A few years ago our mortgage was with a company hit by the credit crunch. They needed to get rid of their mortgage side of the business, or as much of it as possible. So they offered us just over £6000 to find another mortgage and leave them.

I thought we’d had another expensive bill, but he had an envelope with $5000AU in it with a note saying “from your friends at [our church]

^How lovely

Back in the days when you could take out payday loans without affecting your credit rating, a lot of them where offering cashback with various sites for your first loan. I took out loads of £80 loans, paid back £100 and got between £30 and £60 cashback for each one. I made about £150 in the end which was a fortune for me earning minimum wage.
Not exactly finding money, but a nice payout for next to no work!

Was with my mum out shopping when I was about 12 and she found £80 on the floor. No apparent owner, no one scouring the floor looking for it. I piped up "shouldn't we take it to the police station?" ( as such behaviour had been drummed into me since childhood). Mum ummed and ahhed and eventually said no, kept the money and bought herself a pair of shoes in Uxbridge market that she'd been hankering after. Well ladies and gentlemen, they ripped her feet to shreds. She took that as a lesson learned and never kept money she found on the floor again.
I have no such scruples and have happily pocketed several tenners over the years found on the floor that have been looking at me hopefully.

I had just made my DH a card, as we didn’t even have the money for one and as we, obviously didn’t have any money to celebrate or buy a bottle of, decided to tidy up the wardrobes. I was rehanging his suit and automatically checked the pockets for tissues, etc. There was £40 in one pocket! The suit hadn’t been worn for months so we couldn’t even remember where it came from. We had a Chinese carry out and a lovely bottle of wine. It was such a good night. I don’t think we could have been any happier if we already had money in the bank, as it was such an unexpected surprise.

Not long after my ex had left, and I had no money for anything other than bills and food, I got a Christmas card through the door. It had a typed sticker instead of a written greeting inside, along with a ten pound note. It merely said ‘treat YOURSELF’ inside. My shoes had just died a very hole-ridden death, so I bought a pair of incredibly cheap ones with the money to tide me over the winter.

I found 100$ in a bottle at Amsterdam airport. I was 12 years old and on a school trip

Not money, but unexpected gift.
DH was made redundant when dd was 4 weeks old, and DS was just 3. It was a month before Christmas.

A few days before Christmas an Amazon parcel arrived, with presents for both children. It was from a lady I barely knew from a baby group. She and her family had moved overseas recently for work, she’d necer even met DD.

Wow, DionneB, how wonderful for a man on a train to randomly give you £40.

I've never received money in an unusual way, a couple of small wins (£10).

Charging someone for sex is fairly unusual I suppose but to me it was just a job ;).

During my divorce, to save my XH remortgaging to buy me out, I took our more liquid assets - including £8K of shares of his (one company).

They grew in value but I considered it monopoly money - the price could fall. However, I was surprised to see a massive fall in April (I checked them periodically).

Turns out there’d been a merger and my special dividend cheque never arrived. I’m waiting for the re-issued cheque to arrive and there’ll be tax to pay. But the cheque is for £32,000. AND I STILL HAVE THE SHARES, STILL WORTH £8K.

The thing I like best about this, is that my XH was a total arsehole and I had let him off very lightly financially. So I love that it’s “his” shares that paid out

My drunk uncle kept giving my husband money at our wedding, he refused to take it back every time my husband told hi he'd airways given us some. Ended up with about £250!! His wife just rolled her eyes so we ended up keeping it! Paid for about 2 drinks on our honeymoon in Iceland lol

I find money on the ground all the time. It makes DH laugh. I don’t walk around looking down - it just catches my eye. I’ll stop to pick up any coin, even 1p. The most I’ve found is £40.

I had £3k compensation after a car accident, on top of the repairs and hire car.

I sold my ex’s stuff he wouldn’t collect and made £100 which I put on a horse, which came in at 7/1. I don’t normally bet on horses it was a tip from a work colleague who was into that stuff.

I also found £40 on the floor in town, folded as if being put in a pocket someone drink must have dropped it (late night after a meal out) but there was no one in sight! Kept half, gave my bro half. Good night out!

A few years ago I attended the funeral of an acquaintance. The chaplin apologised for the long delay in holding the service but the authorities had been unable to trace any living relatives.

There and then I decided to do a bit of amateur heir hunting. It took me a couple of months, but with a house and a large five-figure building society account I did very nicely indeed.

Found £20 outside a night club when I was a skint student.
Another time I was out on a work visit with a colleague and we found a rolled up £20 in the gutter beside our car. We decided to go halves on it- My colleague took it home and found there were drugs (white powder) in the middle of it

Delayed and shunted onto the next flight after the one before our was cancelled. Grumbled but thought it wasn't the worst that could happen. Family on board said they were getting 100 euros each compensation. Turns out they had been at a different airport the day before, flight cancelled. Changed to this airport and they were on the flight with us that got shunted onto a later flight. Assumed it was for their inconvenience.

Got a call a few weeks after returning from our hols from the travel agent. We had a cheque for approx £70 each waiting for collection.