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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask for your stories of random good luck?

70 replies

whothehellknows · 28/07/2015 21:29

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?

OP posts:

Dowser · 01/08/2015 14:35

Oh and my lovely OH. He's been the best luck of all.

NotAMamaYet · 01/08/2015 14:39

I remember when I was young (maybe 5 or 6) I lost one of my teeth at school in the playground. It was winter and had been snowing.

I wrapped it up in a paper towel and left it in the cloak room only to find it gone when I came back to it!!!

At the end of school, my mum came and picked me up and I told her what had happened.

I swear to god she searched the snow covered playground for an hour and by some absolute MIRACLE she found my baby milk tooth in the snow at the other end of the playground

Divine intervention / dream mum !!!

PlummyBrummy · 01/08/2015 17:05

I lost my dad in a motorway accident and was totally knocked sideways by it. About 6 months or so later I had to go to the inquest in the town it happened closest to which involved a decent journey. That was to happen on a Wednesday. On the Monday of that week I entered a radio competition, the kind of thing I normally don't touch with a barge pole and didn't believe people ever really won.

I won it! So I had to go to the inquest on Wednesday but by Friday I was flying out to South Africa - for the weekend! - with a mate in order to see a pop star filming their latest video. We stayed in the best hotel and had £300 spends too. We had the most amazing, amazing time and were dropped off on Monday morning by taxi as if nothing had ever happened.

That week I experienced the very lowest lows and the highest highs and I still wonder if it really happened as it all had such a dreamlike quality. I'm grateful that it did though, a very random piece of good luck helped me get through a very bad time indeed.

Petridish · 01/08/2015 17:30

I've never been rich, but I have been lucky to have had some unexpected windfalls - I got £2000 back from overpayment of electricity, compensation from a mis sold endowment policy, a few thousand pounds in a Will... that kind of thing. Very welcome, as you can imagine.

listsandbudgets · 01/08/2015 18:10

My dad lost his wedding ring while swimming in the sea. Understandably he gave it up for lost until he went for a walk next day at low tide and found it in the sand. He wasn't even looking for it just suddenly spotted a ring at his feet.

Original poster

whothehellknows · 01/08/2015 19:13

Some of these have given me a lump in my throat, especially ApignamedJasper. I know that feeling of logging in to your bank account with a sinking feeling, so to find that extra money there must have been incredible!

OP posts:

Original poster

whothehellknows · 01/08/2015 19:36

Dowser, I feel like you about the lottery. My dream is to win big and not tell anyone-- just spend my spare time anonymously making awesome things happen for people. I'd go in to restaurants and leave a massive surprise tip, and sneakily pay the bill for the couple struggling with a crying baby at the next table. Or always buy coffee for the person behind me in line at a coffee shop. Leave a paid up £100 gift card at the till for a frazzled looking person trying to do a big shop with the kids in tow.

I'd give to charities as well, obviously. But I think those little individual moments of luck go a long way towards making the world a liveable place.

OP posts:

CPtart · 01/08/2015 20:10

Years ago when DC were small, we went to Chester zoo with DS2 in the buggy. He took his favoured soft toy with him and being there for 7 or 8 hours we lost the damn thing. On leaving at closing time after a full on day, we were trundling through the almost empty car park and there, sat on a random post, not even near the car was little Taz. Couldn't believe our luck. We still laugh about it now.

EmeraldKitten · 01/08/2015 20:23

Ok kind of opposite as this could be bad luck...

DH and I won the lottery last year. We had 5 numbers...won £2400, lovely.

Our 6th number was a 4. The 6th number drawn was a 5. Had our 4 been a 5 it would have been a £1.3m win

Ironmanrocks · 01/08/2015 21:06

Sunnystriker.....does that not mean the house was meant for you...?!

I ran out of petrol once (my mini had a dodgy fuel gauge) and I was aiming to get a train to London. A man stopped, offered to take me to a fuel station so I accepted his lift. I didn't have a fuel carrier so borrowed his (it already had little fuel in it) he took me back to my car and told me and wouldn't accept any money...he just asked me to pass the kindness on. He had been stuck in Hong Kong and some lovely people had really helped him and he had decided to do the same for others. I'll never forget him and have done the same to others heaps of times...and always retell the story!

tethersend · 01/08/2015 21:17

My friend and I were at a festival off our faces and one morning found a phone outside our tent. We were in the heart of the campsite away from the paths, so it seemed as if someone must have got lost and staggered past.

Rather than hand it in to the festival organisers, she kept it and rang its owner once we got home.

They are now married with a child

SamVJ888 · 01/08/2015 21:20

About 7 years ago I took my dd to Disneyland Paris, on the first day (actually when we were checking in) we realised she'd lost her favourite teddy bear that she'd had since she was born. She was so upset. That Christmas (which was only a month or so later) Santa brought her teddy back. Apparently he'd found it on his travels and got his elves to sprinkle magic dust on it to make him like new before he brought it back to my dd . She was ecstatic, she's 13 now though........

MsAspreyDiamonds · 01/08/2015 22:58

I've been lucky with unexpected windfalls when I've been on my last penny. Salary underpayment, tax over payment & small inheritance.

I've returned my luck by helping out friends and family so it continues to be a cyclical thing. I worried about how I was going to pay for two sets of school uniforms. I received 1k back from the taxman so a nice sum at the right time.

Buxtonstill · 01/08/2015 22:59

thehouseonbellst I'm mildly curious as to why you have singled out my post for rebuke. Why am I in the wrong for not taking the money to the police, yet it's ok for others who have found £20/30/40 ?

rumbelina · 02/08/2015 12:07

The phone/festival one reminds me of my friend who went travelling. She had her friend's sister's address in a far off land but no phone number. After a while travelling she turned up in that city but when she got to FS house the sister had moved on and the house owner didn't know where to. Friend was invited to stay the night while she decided what to do. That was in 2001 and she's still there, happily married with 2 kids to the house owner :)

Trills · 02/08/2015 13:58

Littlefluffyclouds81 · 02/08/2015 15:04

Years ago I went out in town with friends, and went back to my bf's house with him which was a couple of miles out of town, leaving my car parked in town because I'd been drinking.

Next morning, I got a cab back to my car, then when we got there I looked through my bag for my purse but it wasn't there. Panic set in, it had all my cards in it and now I had no way of paying the taxi driver. I thought I'd have a look in my car, as I had briefly gone back to it before going to my boyfriends the night before.

As I walked up to my car, a little old man was sat on the wall. He called over to me and handed me my purse. Turns out he'd found my purse in the gutter next to my car first thing that morning, and had been sat on the wall waiting for me to come back. He recognised me from my ID. Everything was still in it. What a nice chap.

Pohtaytoh · 02/08/2015 16:21

When i was 17 i dropped my driving licence in town on my lunchbreak. I retraced my steps and even asked the street cleaner but didn't find it. Later that night my friend text me. He'd been getting ready to go out and went to pick up what he thought was his driving licence on his kitchen counter, only it wasn't his it was mine. His mum had picked it up in town and was going to post it back to me. She'd never met me so didn't know her son knew me. I was thrilled as it would have cost me my days wage to replace it.

ahbollocks · 02/08/2015 17:26

When I was 16 me and 23 yo sister went to visit my aunt in London. On our return leg we were waiting at Euston station when I realised my purse was gone.
I was absolutely fraught, had no money, no train tickets for our 300 mile journey, no phone battery and my sister was sat on the floor sobbing.
I ran down the stairs to the black cab rank but couldn't spot the cab that had dropped us, and was scrabbling to think of what the fuck to do.
As I ran back to my sister I saw a woman approach her holding a passport photo. .
Lovely lovely lady had spotted the similarity in my photo in purse to my little sisters face, in the middle of the heaving waiting area.
All my money was in there and my tickets too.

ahbollocks · 02/08/2015 17:26

13 yo**

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