To ask for your stories of random good luck?

[whothehellknows]

Feeling a bit low at the moment, and stuck (hopefully temporarily) in some yucky situations, so I'm after a bit of a boost. Does anybody have any stories that serve as a good reminder that unexpected good stuff can happen? Mine have never been dramatic things, but I know that every time I've lost my wallet it's always been handed in by a good passerby. Once or twice I've gone to pick something up and found £10, but that's about it.

What about everybody else? Anybody been given a scratch card for their birthday that won a load of money, or bought a chocolate bar with an amazing prize inside? Been left a surprising tip while waitressing or tripped over and found something cool?

Lots of £1 over the years

Found £5 in a puddle at the trolley bay six people had already walked passed it :-)

Almost exactly five years later I found £20 in a field.

I found someone's debit card in a puddle in the middle of town and handed it in to the bank

I found £25 worth of beer tokens at a festival last year

To be fair I'm highly drawn to anything odd on the floor ;-p

A few years ago ExH and I were in financial difficulties - I had bills coming out of my account the following day and no money in my bank. This would result in me going overdrawn and being charged for it, more money we didn't have. With no money coming in by the next day I just had to accept it and the next day I checked my bank to see what the damage was....and found myself £350 up!

Turned out a tax return had gone in on the same day, we hadn't even received the letter yet but it paid all the bills and gave us a very much needed £350 extra. I think I cried a bit.

When we had 3 kids and the twins were not sleeping we went to the shopping centre early as the smooth floors and the push chair helped the twins to nap. Went in toys r us for a look around and the manager cones over and asks us if we wanted to buy an x display climbing cube thing... We thanked him but said we didn't have alot of money. He sold it to us for £12.50.
Our 3 played on It nearly every day for 3 years then we sold it on eBay for £72.00 :-)

I was on a train to visit someone in 1995; never got that train before. A bloke got on and sat opposite me, on his way home having just flown in from Guatemala after a period of backpacking. We got talking and he said he'd been booked to go on an overland trip across the USA with a certain company but had had to cancel, losing his $95 deposit. In my bag I happened to have a letter to post that day which included a cheque to the same company as my deposit for the trip I was planning with them. He said to tell them to transfer his deposit to me. I didn't post my letter, I contacted the company who agreed to transfer his $95 to me, saving me that money off my trip. I had a great time!

My friend lost her gran's engagement ring on a night out. Later I went for a wee in an alley (I know, gross, but I was young and desperate) and saw something glinting. Yep, her gran's engagement ring!!

I should add that I gave it back to her, didn't keep it! So her luck really, but close enough :)

A few years ago when we first moved into our first home we were so poor it was unbelievable and we'd walked into town to spend our last fiver on cheap food to last the weekend, I looked down and found £20 on the floor outside the body shop, we got a few more bits and I bought a £1 scratchcard and won £40. It was such a relief to know we wouldn't be starving until payday.
Luck on someone else part I suppose; My dp had gone to a punk festival in Blackpool for a weekend and took around £300 spending beer money and took it all out on the first night (!!) woke up the next morning hungover with £20 on him. Someone must've been buzzing to find that amount of money, this was around 2 years ago and I still remind him when he has a moan about me "wasting money"

Underpayment of maternity leave got me £3.5k

Unexpected tax refund of £1.2k, then the next week a similar amount for the previous year.

Absolutely overjoyed with both

I'm pregnant - naturally - after three failed rounds of ivf and being told that dh had no viable sperm and that all my eggs (aged 32) were hard boiled and useless so that even if by some miracle an intrepid sperm reached the egg it would just bang its head and give up. One must have been wearing a hard hat can carrying mining gear.

Right, I'm not prone to sentimentality being a stout Yorkshire lass but We had a really life-changing week in 2008 which pretty much changed my whole outlook. We were in a shitty rented flat with serious damp issues affecting my health and couldn't afford to move or put a deposit on anything despite having saved a reasonable amount. We also thought that the chances of conceiving were slim and pregnancy would be difficult due to my ill-health so things were looking quite bleak

I was a bit upset having a coffee with DH in the library cafe discussing our situation when a council worker from the building next door approached us and advised us to join the affordable housing scheme as they had empty properties they couldn't fill. Fast forward 2 weeks later were offered a new build apartment in our price range which we qualified for Fast forward 10 weeks and a celebratory weekend in Edinburgh and I found out I was pregnant (which went fine) .

Turns out they stopped that housing scheme only a year later and now that my illness has progressed, that time was a small window of opportunity fertility wise for me, any later and it wouldn't have been possible.

I'll never forget that council worker - I have a home and a beautiful little boy because of him. I do make an effort to pay stuff forward now and random acts of kindness because I feel so lucky.

Some years ago we were on a family trip to a National Trust site, on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year. DC3 was 5 months old, breast fed, and very hot and bothered. I'd been giving him water out of a bottle, but he wouldn't take a sippy cup. We had been there for about an hour when he was getting irritable, so I went to get his water, when I realised I'd forgotten it. My DD (3 years old) was asking what DC3 wanted and I explained that he was hot and thirsty and wanted a drink of water but I'd left his bottle at home.

Out of nowhere a lady appeared and asked me if I'd like a spare (untouched) baby bottle of boiled, cooled water, as her baby didn't need it. That was an amazing stroke of luck and we were very grateful :)
(If anyone recognises this story, thanks so much, you saved the day!)

We used to live in Bicester, near the outlet village where a lot of wealthy foreign tourists would come to visit. Quite often we would find £5 or £10 notes they'd dropped on the floor. My BIL once found a £20 when he was visiting us, but the best find was £40 crumpled up!

Heavy month last month and this month financially and now my car needs a new radiator. Bank has cocked up severely and continuously to the point when I'd decided 'enough' and asked for a gesture of goodwill. The amount they have credited is the amount to repair my car

JillBYeats - are you sure the machine didn't put it back into your bank account? Unless someone came up immediately after you then the ATMs are designed to suck it back in after a few seconds.

Depending on how long ago it was it may be worth checking with your bank to see if it was put in a holding account and not reallocated back to you as some of the major banks have just realised they'd done this and started refunding people back to 2005!

I read an article a few weeks ago (think it was in the guardian?) by a journalist who'd had a refund from HSBC for when he did the same thing 8 years ago - including 8 years worth of interest on the amount he'd withdrawn!

SweetCharlotteRose that imagery made me laugh!

This lovely thread has inspired me to try and drum up some good luck of my own.
Very unlikely to find this, as it was a good 8 years ago, but I thought I'd open it up to the universe and see if it can't be found. We rented a van from enterprise to move house and dropped off in Portsmouth, Hampshire. We left a oil painting of 4 koalas in the space above the cab. It was about 0.5x1m. Only sentimental value, but you never know.
Happy to be converted to woo believer....

Lauren.

Anotherone it was 14 years ago!! Still stings but I had just sold my house so was feeling flush (hence taking out £150 on a night out) so lessoon learned and never forgotten - I always check and double check.

Mine is not so much a story of random goodluck but a story of the overwhelming kindness of a stranger... and also a lesson in not judging a book by it's cover.

I had just moved to Los Angeles from London for post-graduate school and was trying to get used to driving in the States, in LA of all places! Basically every time I set out in my car it was a white-knuckle experience just to get to my destination. Plus I was a broke student so my car was a pile of junk, another stress factor for driving. A few weeks after arriving I had to get to a class in a new location that I wasn't familiar with and unsurprisingly I got lost. I ended up in a dodgy looking neighborhood (think windows with iron railings, chain link fences and a barking pitbull behind each fence...) and my car engine crapped out on me right then and there. This was 2001 and cell phones weren't urbiquitous back then so I don't really know what to do next.

As I'm looking hopelessly at my car, a man who was in his front yard, came up to ask if I was having car trouble. He then went on to pop the hood, take a look and he started working on my engine. It took a few awkward hours as he figured out my engine issue and fixed so it would run at least temporarily. He did this without being asked, he didn't want money (I did give him my unopened diet coke which was all I had.) He was friendly and kind but also a little scary looking, I would have pegged him for a hell's angel type, complete with some missing teeth. In fact he strongly reminded me of someone but I couldn't recall who. He was a army veteran and hearing my English accent he told me he had spent time based in Germany so we talked about the autobahn (of which I have no idea about but I was grateful to keep talking about something!) and after he fixed it he gave me directions and told me in a fatherly way that I should really avoid this neighborhood in future as it isn't safe!

I have never been so grateful that a complete stranger took 2 hours out of his life to fix my car in return for nothing but my grateful thanks, and I finally remembered who he had reminded me of! Charles Manson!! I actually did check to make sure that he hadn't received parole... just in case. So I received a wonderful act of kindness by a man who just happened to resemble a notorious killer. Life is very strange sometimes.

Love this thread so I am marking my place

When I was extremely broke a few years ago, had about £3 in my account. Left my flat to find £10 on top of a bush. Couple days later drove to the post office to collect a parcel when I left found another £10 on the floor. I was so happy because I was living off canned soup!
I have also won £25 and £50 on the lottery when I was broke.

I got a phone call at work to say that they hadn't applied my son's 15 free hours for ages. £1500, thank you very much.

My ex-husband refused to pay me the money that he owed me on the monthly payments for a brand new car we had bought when we were together. I was basically using my child maintenance to pay for a car that he was driving other women around in. He got drunk, wrote it off, the insurance company paid out in full and he ended up with a drink driving conviction hahahaha.

I went to buy a scratch card. Asked for what I thought was £5 one but it turned out to be a £10 one but I was too embarrassed to say I didn't want it as there was a big queue and I didn't want to hold everyone up. I won £140

I found £100 on my way to work the other morning. 5 £20 notes folded in three. It was 7.30 am, and not a soul was around. Thanks to whoever dropped it; I do a lot of work with an orphanage overseas, and that bought a fair few schoolbooks and stationery to take out to them later this year.

Buxton I'm afraid that should have gone to the police.

I get an awful lot of good luck in my life.( I've had some seriously bad too) .

I do believe in the laws of attraction. Positive thoughts and all of that. I expect good and nice things to happen to me and they invariably do.

My favourite saying is life is a massive pizza and I want a huge slice. ( now this pizza is so big , my huge slice still leaves masses for everyone else.)

I've never won the lottery yet but if I do I'd end up giving most of it away. I like to keep paying it forward.

I used to do competitions . I won a lot of tie breaker ones which were mainly skill based but I was also extremely lucky at draws. I won some upper class flights to anywhere in the world. I used to enter the daily mail win a £1000 ones. I won the £1000 on one week and give weeks later I won another £1000 on a different competition in the DM. There was a website called free money, I won a £1000 on that as well.
Often we turn up last minute to the theatre and get the last seats. There's honestly a myriad of things but basically I think it's cos I expect nice things to happen.

Met DW