To ask for your unexpected windfalls in life?

[strawberriesplease]

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

Being made to leave a job unexpectedly. The settlement allowed me to change my life.

After a 3 month tough stint of military service dh booked a baby moon to Barbados that was dirt cheap/basic (still incredibly expensive) upgraded to first class on flight out was just amazing

Got contracted for 2 weeks to cover a sick leave on a shift. The sick worker returned after 8 days and I was told I could leave. As I had a 2 week contract I got paid in full.
The following month I received another cheque for 2 weeks pay and again the next month.
In total I had 6 weeks pay for 8 days work. I put it aside for a year and then used it to pay off a year's mortgage.

A few years go my work at the time were making redundancies and asked for volunteers company wide. Everyone was told.to go to a meeting room to collect their offer letter if they wanted to. I had been in the company for 2 years and 3 days so was eligible by 3 days. As they needed to make.100 people redundant they were offering enhanced redundancy pay of 3 months salary plus notice period on top of statutory. I went to see my offer and opened my envelope to see my offer of just over £10k. I almost fainted. I had already decided I wanted to leave anyway so it was the best possible outcome for me and meant I was able to buy a house.

Oh wow, how did that happen?

I enter a lot of competitions so have had a great lot of wins over the years.

I was in London outside a theatre with my husband and a lady just came up to us and said she worked there and would we like free tickets for the show later! Yessss!

I was about 13 and I was at the local swimming pool, I noticed a pound coin on the floor in the changing room so bent down to pick it up then saw under the lockers there was loads and loads of dropped pound coins! Later that day I went bowling with my friends family and walking through the car park I found more money, I think in total I found £30 that day and I still remember what a great day it was 😂

When I was about 9 a new local frozen food shop called 'freezer world' opened up near us. On their opening day they had a raffle going that I entered, and won the first prize. A 5 minute long supermarket sweep!!!!

I went back with my mum to do the sweep and had the time of my life. My mum let me get whatever I wanted. It was the best day! We had so much freezer food we had to borrow freezer space from my nana and 2 next door neighbours until we could eat through some of it.

I specifically remember getting a prawn ring and a chocolate fudge cake.

Such a great memory.

£3,000 on People's Postcode Lottery. That was a lovely surprise.

Ah - mine was also at an expensive theme park... they were advertising the new fanta fruit twist that day so we ended up with loads free! We still talk about it 20 years later 😂

We’ve been underpaid on universal credit for the last 16 months, we got a back payments of £3800. It has honestly saved us this winter, I’m so grateful for it!

My grandfather's cousin who I had never heard of turned up on the government Bona Vacantia list. I found out when I got a call out of the blue from an heir hunter company.

My Dh had to buy some machinery for work and the company rep said that everyone who bought equipment over a certain amount would be put into a raffle to win a holiday to the states. Only 36 tickets were in the draw and we won a holiday to Florida staying in a 5* hotel.

Just after dd was born we won a lovely wooden high chair in a competition in the local paper. A friend of ours worked for the paper and drew the ticket and was very surprised to see who had won.

Booted my third dh out for being a lying waste of space..
Resigned myself to being single forever..
5 months later purely by chance met a fab man.
Been together 10 years and been married 7 with a dc now!
Better than a Lotto win!

When I was a kid there was a warehouse behind where my cousins lived. One day there was a huge spillage of orange tic-tacs. Many Tupperware containers were filled!

My mum won a Miele hoover in a work raffle in 2003, it's still going strong.

This was a very long time ago so bear with.
We went to a friend's wedding, leaving 6 week old baby and toddler with my parents.
We got wrecked and were knackered. Got back to Hotel and were sleeping like babies within minutes. Woke up the next morning and couldn't find the hotel keys. Dh pulled out the desk and fallen right down was a wodge of notes this was before euros. I think they were Portuguese escudos. We joked that they were probably worth a tenner. Stuck them in a drawer at home.
18 months later we had scraped together money to go visit some friends in France. Off I toddled to Thomas Cook as you did and asked them to change them to francs. £600 quids worth! It's as well that we didn't know really.

I had a big gap in my mouth after a tooth had to be removed. The cost of an implant was £3,500 so I had ruled that out as an option and was looking at different denture options. The day after the dental apt I received a tax refund for £3,800. I could then pay for the implant!

Upgraded to business class on a long, 12h flight to Whistler. God it was amazing to have a proper bed and be able to sleep.

DH winning £2.5k of wine a couple of weeks after being made redundant.

We won £38,000 on the Hits Radio competition a few years ago

Bought a house in a seaside resort for £63K in 2002. Housing developer knocked on the door and offered hubby £250K for it 5 years later. Hubby stunned into silence at windfall the housing developer thought he was playing hard to persuade and said 'o.k mate I will give you 275K for it. We moved out 6 weeks later.

I bought an Elvie breast pump for £300. I really don't get on with it at all and I phoned them to ask for advice on the battery, they ended up saying they'll send a replacement as an individual part wasn't in stock.

They mistakenly sent two brand new pumps ar
worth £300 each. I sold both on eBay 😁

My DH applied for a grant to cover the final
part of his phd fees (I think it was about £400). They gave him £3000. He queried it and the academic in charge just said ‘we didn’t have many applicants and it needs to be allocated. Merry Christmas’

Not sure it’s classed as a windfall, but in March my PIP decision was overturned. I was really panicking because I wasn’t coping financially at all after having to quit working, I’d run out of money and didn’t have much food in that my fussy eater DS would eat. I woke up one morning so depressed that I thought I wouldn’t make it out of bed, checked my phone and there was £7.5k in my current account. I actually burst into tears because I was so relieved, I’ll never forget that feeling!

Partner and I living in France, young and poor, not long together.
He took me to the South, last minute decision with not a lot of money between us. We slept in the car near a beach that night and spent the next day eating cheap food and having beers on the beach.

Needed water from shop, on the way I saw a fancy wine bar with tables on the street and thought I'd love to go there.
There was a minimum at the time for card payments in shop so he bought 2 scratch cards at the counter to make it up. Won €50 on one, €60 on the other. Straight back to the wine bar we went. On way out later partner said I still feel lucky, got another card and won €150. We thought we were fucking great 🤣