Tell The National Lottery what you’d do with a fantasy £20,000 - £250 voucher prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

You may have heard recently that The National Lottery's Lotto game is changing this autumn and is introducing a new Raffle where 50 players will win £20,000 in each draw. To celebrate this, The National Lottery have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters would do with (a fantasy) £20,000.

Here's what The National Lottery say: "As of 5th October, Lotto is changing, offering more ways to win more money. The prize for matching three numbers will be increased from £10 to £25, the jackpots will be bigger (£2.5million on Wednesday and £5million on Saturdays) and there's a new raffle where 50 players will win a guaranteed £20,000 each draw. Tickets for the new game go on sale on 3rd October and cost £2 per line. We would love to hear about how Mumsnetters would spend £20,000 if they were to win the raffle prize!"

So what would you do if you were to win £20,000? Would you go on a huge spending spree, or would you be more careful with your winnings and put it aside for a rainy day?

What have you always wanted to do, but have never managed to justify the cost of? Dine at a Michelin-starred restaurant? Buy a piece of designer jewellery? Maybe you'd splash it all on a round the world holiday? Or perhaps you'd save it to make life easier for you and your DCs if they decide to go to university? Or would you take the opportunity to clear (some) debts or pay off a chunk of the mortgage?

Whatever it is, The National Lottery would love to hear about it.

Everyone who shares their thoughts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Clear debts and a new kitchen. I have a fridge that the door is on upside down with no light, and just 2 rings working on my gas hob.

I'd spend £5,000 of it on a fantastic family holiday, and the rest I'd save - pretty boring I'm afraid!

I would use it for a deposit for a house big enough for all of us instead of all being squashed into our house with not enough rooms and storage.
In my mind my dream house is an idyllic rural house with huge garden with chickens, somewhere to grow vegetables - like the Darling Buds Of May Larkin house.

I would use some of the money to make myself look like a young Catherine Zeta-Jones rather than Ma Larkin, although Ma Larkin was also beautiful.

Treat my parents to something lovely because I only realised how much they do for me now I have children.

Put into my moving house deposit fund.

Totally boring, but would pay off some more of our mortgage. That way, we'd be a little bit closer to financial freedom.

Build a swimming pool in the garden!

But then i Would have to buy a £40k every year for life scratch card to maintain it!

Pay for a cycle of IVF to use up our remaining frosties, a holiday and pay off the debt to free us from the worry and stresses of life !!!

I would spend it on IVF, we would so love to have a baby. Then with what was left after our (obviously successful) treatment I would fund a cycle for a couple in a similar postion to us in the hope that their dreams would come true too

Clear my debts (£3000) and put the rest aside to pay for me to train as a counsellor.

So many things-
an art studio in the back garden with a fab sound system
A camper van
soft top mini with personalised number plate
Family guided tour of the USA/China
Fuck off diamond ring
But in reality would put it into kids college fund.(well maybe would do the mini with out the number plate as could justify that and save the rest)

I would be very boring and pay off my debts. After that, I'd buy a new car (nothing fancy) and treat my children to some new clothes.

I would split into four. First portion to pay off debts. Second portion to put towards holidays for the next two years. The third portion for work to the house, shoes and clothes for everyone in the house. The final portion would but into savings for the future.

Sensible options yes, but fantasy would be to splurge it on a shiney nearly new car!

I'd split the money over 10 years and add an extra £2K per annum to our holiday budget so that we could either stay in a swankier hotel or go further afield a little or treat ourselves while we were away.

This comes from years of just having to make do on holiday, I've often wondered why we've come away when the accommodation isn't as spacious or as well appointed or as clean as home! I've often dreamt of living the high life, travelling in style, having a chauffeur, a translator who could take us to all of the out of the way places where the tourists don't congregate ............

A great initiative National Lottery!

I would buy a car and pay for dh's driving lessons. And go on holiday.

A new bathroom, a trip to the ice hotel and a snazzy playhouse for my little girl!

A holiday, set some aside for next holiday, do the house up with fresh paint and some new furniture, and employ someone to paint the ceilings. So thats probably £10,000. Get a landscape gardener to redesign the rear lawn area as i dont like it. Refence it too. Maybe redo the kitchen or part of it as the layout is wrong and i cant reach the top shelves, prob swap the sitting and dining rooms around (wiring for tv needs sorting out in the dining room before it can become the sitting room). Then save whatever is left. Or give it to a charity or local food bank. Oh, and an iPad all to myself that DH can't use as he's terrible at picking up viruses on our laptop. There wouldn't be any left would there? Oh, and I would pay my DM's mortgage off. That would be the very first thing. Then our holiday, then new furniture, then the ceilings.

My windows are rotting, I need a new kitchen, would like a naice fitted bedroom and the flooring is cracking.

So a total refurb of my flat, really.

Would have to be a dream holiday for the family to Disney no expense spared with enough left to pay off bank loan and credit card. On the other hand my ds's bedroom needs redecorating and new bed so would do this first then splash out on a holiday.

I would buy a little plot of land nearby and make a wildflower meadow.

Serin, love that your idea is so not related to day-to-day life..

My instinct would lead me to do something immediately practical with it, like pay down my US student loans and never hear from them again.

But ideally, I'd look into investment options - figure out what kind of a fund I could put it into and make it earn some money for me.

And very ideally, I'd use it to beef up a down payment - assuming we could sell the current house and still walk away with some money in our pockets - to get a bigger one with another bedroom and more storage space.

And if the house didn't work out, then I'd buy a nice car. :)

Would absolutely love to go on holiday. DS is 5 and has never had a holiday....bit of a shortage of grandparents so he doesn't even get to go and stay with family. If we won £20,000 we could spend the next year planning a massive round-the-world trip and getting really excited. Then the very first day of the school holidays, that would be us off and away. I reckon we could buy round the world tickets, have loads of spending money and still come in under 10K. We could put the rest of the money into a savings account so that there would never be another year when we couldn't afford to go on holiday. It would be great. Sigh.

mmmm been thinking and i think i would buy a campervan or caravan as we always holiday in the UK and it would be nice to have a bit of luxury rather than a tent, then i would treat the family to something nice they want and it would be nice to get some luxury food and not have to add up while round the supermarket

Pay off the rest of the mortgage and use the rest to help buy a second-hand jeep and a fish supper for two with any pennies left over after that. My wants are simple!