I won the lottery !

[CetteBoiteEstVerte]

Sadly, only around a fiver and not 5 million - that darned decimal point is always in the wrong place for me.

Has anyone you know won anything substantial?

Many moons ago, one of the receptionists at work one a cool £1M and came into work to hand in her notice with immediate effect. We were all really happy for her as she'd had a bit of a rough run in luck - our manager however tried to insist she work her notice!

She didn't 🙃

I'm a lottery virgin, never done a lottery in my life even raffle tickets...😳
[runs and hides after finally admitting it]

My colleague won £450k on the postcode lottery a few years ago. She'd only signed up to it a week before!

She'd had a really rough few years prior to the win so it was well deserved.

My husband won £10 000 on Thunderball or something like that. It was connected to the lottery anyway. He was in a small syndicate (they've won a few hundred and bits and bobs like that too over the years).

He gave that to me. If I won a large amount the first thing I'd do would be to buy somewhere to be mortgage free and secure most of the rest for DC.

One of my oldest friends won lotto in Australia years ago. She took her (ungrateful brats) on a trip around Europe. Installed a swimming pool, bought a pedigree kitten, did stuff to house. Her abusive cock of a husband refused to go on holiday because “Europe is a shithole”, had an “accident” whilst looking after the kitten and killed it and took her to the cleaners when she divorced him. Lost the house. But is now with a kind, laid back non abusive husband. Poorer, but happier.

I won £100 a few weeks ago.

I had a colleague way back in the 1980s who won about £10k on the football pools.
Another colleague and I had shown her how to fill in the form, as she'd never done the pools before and she won on the 3rd week. She didn't even treat us to a drink in the pub across the road from the office.

My df won the football pools and dumped me and my dc... His dw's wishes but he went along with it.. Been over 20 years now.. He has a new house but no dc or dgc

.know what I would be happier with..

A local lad won nearly 10 million and blew the lot . He wasn't very bright and ended up getting massively taken advantage of by people . Spent a LOT on coke , bought a house which got trashed , and then when the money had gone , so were his mates . Believe he's now working as a bin man somewhere. He was a bit of a pillock ( abused the ticket inspectors on a train , so I had to be step in ) but I still feel a bit sorry for him.

I know a couple of people who have won on the Health and post code lottery. Not ridiculous amounts but enough to pay of their mortgages and to have a decent holiday.

An ex manager was friends with a couple who won an eye watering amount on the euro millions. Said they were lovely people and she was happy for them.

A neighbour won £280,000. She bought a hot tub and has had some nice holidays

i know of a woman (mother used to live next door) who married her husband after he won big on a pub lotto. nobody was allowed to say anything about it (cough gold digger cough) 😂

I won £30 last week, felt like riches as I so rarely have cash in my purse these days! So far I spent on 2 more lottery tickets, a tip in the pub when I went out for a meal, a newspaper and a bag of liquorice allsorts, and there's still a fair bit left.

Eldest DD on the other hand received yet another prize (£50) on her Premium Bonds (not a big holding) this week. Had mine for 60 years and never won a penny

I remember watching a documentary years ago about big lottery winners. One guy was an absolute arsehole. He dumped his partner and their kids, took up with another woman who DEFINITELY wasnt with him for the money....oh yes.... and when his ex asked him to buy a home for her and the kids as they were in insecure rental, the new woman kicked off and said, on camera, that she didnt think that his ex deserved anything as "she is only the mother of his kids". I know that some people can be arseholes but I was genuinely shocked at her saying that. He bought a tank and used to carve up the lawn in his big fancy house driving over old cars and things. I am sure I saw that a few years later he was in trouble with the law and flat broke. Bet the gold digger had soon moved on by then though.....

I hope his ex and her kids are doing ok.

Many years ago my boss came in, little bit dazed, and said his parents had won on the football pools. Not mega bucks but enough to pay off their mortgage.

A girl in work sold a twenty thousand euro winning ticket once. The lady who won got her house insulated and fixed up some rooms with it. She continued to do the lottery and was always winning fivers and tenners

I’ve won £1000 on the Postcode Lottery. Shared it with DH and the (late teens) kids.

Spurred on by @CetteBoiteEstVerte I checked my tickets earlier, and I too have won the lottery!!!

Two lucky dips for tonight and two lots of 3 numbers at £30 a pop so I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams and have a whole £60 to blow on something frivolous.😂😎

i won a tenner on the postcode lottery last week

My personal and probably not popular opinion is that the mega prize funds (ie over 5-10 million) would be better split into a number of smaller prizes eh multiple 1million prizes, because there seems to be a lot of stories about mega winners losing friends as their old friends don't know how to be around them, and there is a lot of resentment from strangers about their win. (There was one winner who bought a house local to his original address, and it was constantly getting it's windows put in, just because he'd managed to guess the right numbers).

I just won £3 this afternoon. I cashed it in and thought that was good going.

About once a month I'll spend a fiver in lotto tickets and daydream about winning enough to be mortgage free and work part time somewhere stress free. No substantial wins yet, sadly!

Great Uncle won 17k on the pools in the 80s, bought his council house and car and put rest in bank. Dropped dead a few months later - which was a good thing as he was physically abusive to my Great Aunt. She waited a few months went abroad on her first foreign holiday, learnt to drive and got a job (he always told her she had to stay home). She lived well into her 90s (died 2 years ago) and had a really lovely life, nothing extravagant buy happy.

I read somewhere lie 80% of people are broke after about 5 years of winning. The issue seems to be that most people who win are from pretty poor backgrounds and so are unused to having that sort of money so have no idea what to do with it. Vulnerable to being exploited by family, friends and people offering risky investment schemes. V few manage it well. A friend dealt with someone who won 11 million and within a few years I think he had 1/2 left.

A work colleague won £180,000. A month later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died around 6 months later! I would rather be lucky in health rather than wealth.

Friends of the family won 50+ million £.

Still live nearby but always travelling now.

@workshy46 apparently a lot more people go for annuities then lump sums these days. You have the option to have the money or an annuity for 29 years on the national lottery. I always think that would be a sensible option as that means you would need to “save” for any big purchases (even if that was a couple of months) and would stop you going off on a bit of a spending spree.