I won the lottery !

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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 won £30 a while ago which was genuinely shocking.

Put it all back in on 15 lottery tickets and surpise surpise won nothing but a lucky dip (which then resulted in nothing)

I won £50 on my works (NHS) lottery a few weeks ago.

Around 20 years ago my Sister's boyfriend's parents won £250,000 on the lottery

On Saturday I won £2 on a scratch card (my Husband buys me 2 every weekend) 😆

I know [of] these two if it counts 🙈

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/19783769.bolton-lottery-louts-jailed-admitting-4-million-fraud/

Otherwise only a few quid here and there on the lottery. DH has been talking about the postcode lottery but I think he's just worried our (awful) neighbours will win something that we miss out on, rather than having any genuine hope we would win!

Not a lottery but DH was part of a share option scheme with his employers. It wasn't worth anything at all until an American company bought his firm. His shares were suddenly worth just short of a million pounds about 10 years ago.

We loved the house we were living in so didn't want to move. We gave some to the children as down payments on their own property and bought a little flat in a place we like to holiday in. The balance we invested for our old age (which is nearly here!)

So our lives didn't really change on the surface but the peace of mind financial security gives us is priceless. After a lifetime of worrying about making ends meet it is wonderful to have that anxiety removed.

I know 2.

One a girl I went to secondary school with, her mum won £7 million I think it was. She had 5 kids and thinking about she was a deserving winner. I'm not sure much of it they have left however.

The second is a friend's husband, he won on a syndicate at work. There was about 30 of them on it and they got a couple of hundred thousand each, bought them a house outright and he set up his own business that has gone from strength to strength.

Must be my turn next!! Although I'm that unlucky I once matched 3 numbers on one lucky dip and the other 3 on the one underneath, that took some getting over 😫

I bet it was her "dream" loft ladder, though - not just any old one. 😄

My boyfriend's sister won two million pounds on the football pools.

Unfortunately her husband was a bit of a blather mouth and soon his workmates and the neighbors got to know about it. Not only were they inundated with notes pushed through the front door they also have a huge sack of letters delivered and people literally just coming up to the door ringing the doorbell and begging them for money. They did not have a minute's peace they packed their bags and went and stayed in a hotel and then found a property in a completely different county and moved into it and then sent a removal man to go to their house and bring all their possessions so they never went home again.

She was very good to me: gave me £20,000 that my boyfriend owed me and was refusing to pay back. She actually changed my life. Good old Mary.

Did you score 8/10 and was one of your answers Tuba? If so I heard you and honestly thought you were going to win.

When I was about 9 a girl at school’s father won on the pools, they’d won enough to buy a new house on a new estate and she’d come to school with new clothes and shoes to show off. She lived on my street and the house they lived in was shabby and her mum smoked like chimney so the walls and ceiling were yellow. Weirdly she adopted a posh accent along the way.
I play the lottery, have NSI and Omaze. It’s money I wouldn’t miss, so just doing it for fun. I’ve won varying amounts on the lottery and £30 voucher from Omaze, nothing from NSI.

Not the lottery but someone in DHs band won £250 000 on Who wants to be a millionaire. He paid off his mortgage and bought a state of the art drum set. He is not up for discussing it with anyone though and closes down any banter on the subject.

Unfortunately her husband was a bit of a blather mouth and soon his workmates and the neighbors got to know about it. Not only were they inundated with notes pushed through the front door they also have a huge sack of letters delivered and people literally just coming up to the door ringing the doorbell and begging them for money. They did not have a minute's peace they packed their bags and went and stayed in a hotel and then found a property in a completely different county and moved into it and then sent a removal man to go to their house and bring all their possessions so they never went home again

This here is EXACTLY why I would keep it quiet. People literally get harassed non stop when it's made public. At least if people only wonder about it but don't actually know for sure you wouldnt get this nonsense at your door. It's bloody awful people are hounded like this.

What's weird to me is that they only seem to do it to ordinary people who come into money- why don't these people go around rich areas begging and harassing the people who live in huge million pound houses? why only lottery winners?

Know of someone who won millions (related to someone who married into our family). Also know someone who won around 1m, they’re a friend of a friend.

I won £8000 on the postcode lottery last year.

Just been on the lottery app and bought a ticket or two. I don't play often but this thread has me day dreaming!

I'm shocked at the people that burn through it and have nothing left within a few years. I'd just be so happy to be able to buy a nice house outright and know I always had that security. It really is a dream for me.

My cousin had the first four numbers of the first ever draw. She was nearly wetting herself with excitement by the time they drew ball five. Those four were the only ones she had in the end, but she was still expecting to get a decent amount (there wasn’t, and presumably still isn’t, a fixed amount for four numbers).

She won a grand total of 32 quid.

500K would do me. Pay off mortgage, do some renovations. Possibly buy another house to rent out (under 100k here). Then have enough to pay dts uni fees and have a fab holiday!

The lotteries in the U.S. can reach over $Billion.
Your odds of winning are like a zillion to one, but my friend and I still play.
Somebody has to win - right?
Every day I read about people whose houses have burned down or who’ve gotten in terrible accidents or other catastrophes.
I think to myself, “if I had the money…”
If I had the money, I could do so much good. I couldn’t help everyone but I sure could help a lot of people and still live quite nicely.
But I need to win that elusive lottery.

I know someone who won 60 million Euros on the Euromillions, not in this country. He's a friend of DH's from when he was young and still lives near my inlaws. I wouldn't have told anyone but the whole area seems to know.
My friend's mum won on her work syndicate about 25 years ago. I think they got about 30k each.
I've never won a sausage 😆

I've often wondered about the postcode lottery, if you've won do you HAVE to go on telly? I don't think I'd like it!

They don’t do annuities in the U.K., apart from on the ‘Set for Life’ game. What are you talking about? Are you not from the U.K.?

My old neighbour won about £100K on the pools about 30 years ago. He bought his council house, sold his business and took early retirement.

That's when it all fell apart, he was so bored and isolated with nothing to occupy him that he sank in to a deep depression and eventually tried and failed to take his own life. That left him severly disabled for the rest of his life. It was so tragic, his life would have been so much better of he had never won the money.

I won just over £9,000 on the football pools about 30 years ago. Big holiday, new (to me, not brand new) car and a (brand) new mattress.

I still have £750 of it in my "pools" account for emergencies. So haven't spent all of my "big" winnings yet 😆

I was once part of a syndicate that had 5 numbers come up. The person that had chosen the winning line had hesitated between 2 numbers ..if she'd picked the other we would have won about 245k each if I remember correctly! I think we got £150 each. DIsappointing, but it's a good story!

My Dad was the result of a pools win!

Many years ago, when the lottery first started, I ran my own business working for new house developers. We carried out various roles on the building sites including glazing the windows and we had two guys working for us that were subcontractors. They won a whopping £22,590,829 and obviously didn’t come to work the next day to finish the windows! I was very sad to read that one of the guys died recently shortly after loosing his wife to illness.

I remember that bloke from Essex who won over £100 million, went public with it (why?!) and since his life has been a bit of a nightmare as you can imagine, his children have bodyguards to and from school because the threat of kidnapping...

My friend also got four numbers on the first lottery draw. We were going to Camden market the next day and she paid for my lunch. £60 odd was a fair bit of extra cash in 1994