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Original poster

To ask for your unexpected windfalls in life?

271 replies

strawberriesplease · 30/11/2022 18:24

Lighthearted folks to give us some cheer as we waltz into December.

Mine was at a very expensive theme park.

Put money into vending machine for a Kit Kat and it released all the chocolate! About 30 different bars dropped. Kids were delighted and we gave some to the only other family behind us.

DH still talks about it as a life highlight Smile

OP posts:
Yogity · 01/12/2022 16:47

When I was at uni I won an iPad at a job fair. I couldn't have afforded one so I was chuffed to bits!

About 10 years ago DH presented to work with intentions to resign for a new job. Before he could speak to his boss everyone was informed his entire department was being made redundant. He got paid redundancy and took some time off before starting his new job.

MintJulia · 01/12/2022 16:49

DS

The little blue line appeared when I was 44 and 5 months. 😊 The best thing ever.

mdh2020 · 01/12/2022 16:54

I won a bottle of Snowglobe sugar plum gin on my Sparks app this morning and my daughter won a bottle of Prosecco.

OceanbreezeSun · 01/12/2022 17:00

Just thought of a couple more smaller windfalls

When we first moved into our home - Dh and I went to the diy store to get paint and other supplies. The white emulsion was pretty expensive but we needed 3 tins of it, so we begrudgingly put them on our trolley, whilst complaining about the price.
Once we got home, dh checked the receipt and they had only charged us for 2 tins.

Another store one - we bought lots of house plants and a couple of small blossom trees for our garden. The cashier didn’t charge us for one of the blossom trees ( which was nearly £40) and one of the houseplants which was about £15. She definitely scanned them as we held the pots up for her to scan.
We thought it seemed cheap when she told us the total, but didn’t question it.

We were in Wagamamas once & had already ordered but not received the food yet - the waitress came out & asked us if we wanted some extra sides for free (the chef had made too many/wrong order etc)
We got given the crispy duck and pancakes and some chicken gyozas. We were very happy (& full)

TulipTuesday · 01/12/2022 17:02

When I was a child my best friends aunt worked in the local newsagents. She had found a whole load of vouchers for free Twirl bars left behind by a rep. She gave them to my best friend who shared them with me.

We had the time of our lives swapping the vouchers for chocolate. There were loads of them too!

Gonegrey31 · 01/12/2022 17:11

Not my good fortune but a good friend bought a Tesla a couple of years ago . Paid by bankers draft . The payment was never processed. He did everything he could to pay but the dealership claimed repeatedly the car had been paid for. He wrote legal letters to make sure he could never be accused of fraud . He’s still driving his free car !

hookiewookie29 · 01/12/2022 17:55

Bought a small handbag from a charity shop and found £150 in it. Came in very useful as hubby had been made redundant short before and it paid for 2 weeks food shopping.

TattiePants · 01/12/2022 18:05

When DS was about 2 an elderly neighbour of my DM gave us a large box of toys that had been their DS’s in the 1980s. We looked in the box and some of the pieces were tiny so we put it in the attic with the plan of getting them out again in a couple of years time. 12-13 years went past and in the second lockdown we suddenly remembered them. Got them out and realised they were rare, mostly complete originals in excellent condition (think Star Wars toys). Joined a specialist Facebook group and so far we’ve made about £4k with a few still to sell!

TattiePants · 01/12/2022 18:15

Thought of another. Last October we were due to remortgage so finally decided to replace our 98 year old roof. Got the finances in place and the roofer booked in for early 2022. Then the storm in late November hit and we lost most of the roof tiles over the gable end. Insurance gave us £2k which paid 10% of the roof we’d already planned to replace.

VollywoodHampires · 01/12/2022 18:52

mdh2020 · 01/12/2022 16:54

I won a bottle of Snowglobe sugar plum gin on my Sparks app this morning and my daughter won a bottle of Prosecco.

Wow I got …. Shortbread

ShortDaysLongNights · 01/12/2022 20:11

Booked a mid price all inclusive holiday on one of the Greek islands about 10 years ago. Got to the hotel and they were desperately looking for people to move to their newly opened hotel at the other end of the island. We just went for it. Best holiday ever. Amazing rooms, several a la cart restaurants, amazing pools, private beach. Would have cost us about three times of what we spent.

ivegotthisyeah · 01/12/2022 20:54

I've thought of another one! When my daughter was about 5 we went to the local garden Centre to look at the reindeer at Christmas time. They had a competition to find the hidden lidt chocolate signs so we did it and popped her names and details in the box.
Forgot all about it and about 3 weeks later there was a knock at the door with a delivery driver handed me a massive I mean huge box - opened it up and it was full to the brim of lidt choc reindeers, snowmen etc etc was epic!!

FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 01/12/2022 21:00

Just remembered. Got a £1000 bonus under the refer a friend scheme at work. Company put off paying it for months. It fell within the qualifying period for calculating maternity pay, so it was more than I expected

Saracen · 01/12/2022 23:03

Whenever I could, I always used to volunteer to be "bumped" from overbooked flights. All the UK staff from our foreign company were on our way home from a team building weekend abroad. I got myself bumped and had good compensation: an extra free flight plus £200, which was excellent since it was only short haul.

They put me on the next flight home, which was only an hour later than I was originally scheduled to fly. Meanwhile my workmates' plane was delayed by two hours. So when they landed at Heathrow, I was there waiting for them in the airport bar, already spending my £200.

Saracen · 01/12/2022 23:08

My sis in the US also used to volunteer to fly later and often got good compensation for it. She had one spell of really good luck during which she was flying at busy times around public holidays, so her original flights were invariably overbooked. Each time she received an additional free flight, sometimes with extra payment on top.

During this lucky streak, she paid for just one ticket and then each time she went to use her free ticket she got herself bumped AGAIN and received an extra ticket. She did this over and over, and ended up flying seven times for the cost of just one flight!

LesOliviers · 01/12/2022 23:14

Found €50 on the floor in the ladies toilet. Made my weekend!

determinedtomakethiswork · 01/12/2022 23:24

@mdh2020 thank you so much for that mention of the sparks card. I've just won a bottle of gin as well!

ElegantlyTouched · 01/12/2022 23:58

Was at Euston Station returning to uni when there was an Aero campaign running there, with people giving out free mini bars. I got a couple but then my mum went up to another rep, told her I was a student and the rep emptied her bag into mine. That was a great few weeks!

Walking home from church by a route not normally taken and spotted a folded up tenner on the floor. As I bend to pick it up I spotted a second, then a third. In total I found £60. Took it to the police, reclaimed it shortly after.

Was asked to go to the States one summer to help a coursemate learn my mother tongue. All paid for. Couldn't say no to a free two months in America, now could I???

ALongHardWinter · 02/12/2022 00:32

I worked in an off-licence in the mid 90s. We sold National Lottery tickets and scratch cards. One evening as I was sweeping the floor just before closing time,I picked up a used scratch card that had been left on the lottery ticket station, intending to put it in the bin. I had a quick look at it,and realised that it was a winning ticket for £50!

ElegantlyTouched · 02/12/2022 00:38

Was just reminded of another. There was an event at the hotel I worked at thrown by a friend of the owner. I was asked if I'd babysit the child of someone attending, and could then have a room for the night. All good.

The next morning at breakfast the child was sent over to my table with an envelope containing cash. I thanked the parents but explained I was being paid anyway. They insisted. I then spoke to the owner to tell him not to pay me, but he just smiled.

fuckthisforagameofdarts · 02/12/2022 09:02

mdh2020 · 01/12/2022 16:54

I won a bottle of Snowglobe sugar plum gin on my Sparks app this morning and my daughter won a bottle of Prosecco.

Thanks! I got Prosecco and 2 of my friends got gin!

MargaretThursday · 02/12/2022 09:18

Long story:

I was taking ds to an annual event we'd been to before, we'd never got advance tickets because it was never that busy. About 3-4 miles away we hit a queue which was moving very slowly. I assumed we were coming up to roadworks or something.
There was a cyclist on the side of the road stopped to have a drink and I was chatting to him as we stayed stationary and I asked him how long the queue was. He told me it was for the event so all the way. But he then told me that if I took the next right it would go down a very windy single track road and skip the queue.
I reckoned we wouldn't get in otherwise, so risked it (don't like that sort of road when I don't know it) and came out less than half a mile from the event.

We arrived at the field to park in. Normally at that time you walk straight to one of the ticket booths (there's about 3 or 4), pay and get in. This time every booth had a queue that had 100s of people in, right the way from one side of the field to the end and back.

I said to ds that we weren't going to get in, so why didn't we sit down by the fence, have our pack lunch, we could hear a little from there, and then we'd go home.
And he agreed.

So we sat down by the fence and I got lunch out and this official came up to me followed by about a dozen people. He asked, "are you paying by card?" I said, "if I can get in, yes."
He told me to follow him. So rather confused we did.

As we went, the people with him told me that they'd got to the front of their queue and the card machine had stopped working. He took us to the front of another queue and asked the chap behind the counter to put us through.
Well, the people at the front of the queue went mad. Yelling, and shouting that they'd been there first. Our official explained to them, but they weren't having any of it, and they were squaring up to him-looked like it could get nasty.

Our official was obviously irritated, but then said. "For goodness, sake, my group, follow me..."
He took us to the entrance and told them to just let us in for free.
As we walked through the entrance there was an announcement that the event was now full and no one else would be let in.

My day of good luck!

Flapjackquack · 02/12/2022 13:23

Spookily I was just reading this thread and was about to go to my sparks app (thanks to the poster who mentioned it, I won some string lights) when an email came through from a solicitor we used 5 years ago on an aborted house sale to say they have just realised they still have £100 of ours. That’s a nice surprise!

Elderflower14 · 02/12/2022 16:13

My lovely ds has decided to give all his Sparks goodies to a community charity near him
.. He's had tangerines and a packet of crisps so far...

Readinstead · 02/12/2022 19:21

Thanks to the poster who mentioned Sparks, I am obviously not a good customer because I have a plush Pepa pig Christmas tree bauble and 25% off wine.
I have really enjoyed this thread, it's nice to hear good luck stories for once.