Finding that winning lottery ticket - it can happen!

[creekland]

Yes, it can happen...

 

Today as I was leaving school the parking lot was mostly empty.  I saw a lottery ticket upside down on the ground and picked it up rather disapprovingly thinking of the litter bug who'd chucked it there.  Instead of walking back to school to throw it away, I figured I'd do that at home.

 

Looking at it... it's not a losing ticket.  It's a winner - of a free ticket.  So I finally find that winning ticket I dream about and it only wins a free ticket!  Figures...  :glare:   :lol:

 

I've yet to decide whether to toss it anyway as planned or find a gas station and take my chances.  Can't say we do the scratch offs often - only on special occasions - sometimes.

 

But just to prove the unlikely can happen... there ya go!

[creekland]

ps  It's not all that unusual for me to pick up garbage when I see it... it pretty much goes along with my feelings about wanting to take care of my planet.

[anneinco]

Take it in... At least here (WA) free ticket = cash for the cost of the ticket!

[creekland]

Take it in... At least here (WA) free ticket = cash for the cost of the ticket!

 

This ticket only cost $1 and there are only 10 top prizes of $5000.

 

It's the type of lottery card that makes me wonder why people spend their money on them TBH.

 

I'd use up a segment of that $1 by using the gas to get to a gas station if I didn't combine trips.

 

But I'll see.  Sooner or later I'll need to get gas - though lately that task has been designated a hubby job.

 

 It almost seems like I'd be snubbing my nose at fate if I didn't get the free ticket.  Perhaps that next one would win $20 aka free dinner.   :lol: 

 

I seriously doubt fate expects me to be one of the 10 top winners.  Most likely I could work off a couple of calories digging out a coin to scratch the freebie off.  I didn't have to scratch the winner off - that had been done already.  Someone is likely missing it and feeling like they missed out on fate.  Poor folks.  It was in the Visitor Parking section of our lot, so highly unlikely I could find the original owner.  I'd actually try if it had been a larger winner TBH.

[anneinco]

This ticket only cost $1 and there are only 10 top prizes of $5000.

 

It's the type of lottery card that makes me wonder why people spend their money on them TBH.

 

I'd use up a segment of that $1 by using the gas to get to a gas station if I didn't combine trips.

 

But I'll see. Sooner or later I'll need to get gas - though lately that task has been designated a hubby job.

 

.

Can you redeem where you get groceries? It's almost worth it, if you don't have to make a special out of the way trip. (Take that for what it's worth because I am the type to also pick up pennies off the ground lol).

[Cinder]

Creekland, how fun! Reminds me of the time we were kids at the beach. My brother was in the water and thought a piece of trash had washed by his leg. He reached down for it and it turned out to be a $10 bill!

[Lolly]

Congratulations. :party:

 

Dh had an employee who spent $20 every week purchasing lottery tickets. She also came to him for loans regularly. The last time she asked him for a loan (which he declined to give her this time), he pointed out to her exactly how much money she would be ahead if she stopped buying tickets. She actually took his advice and stopped. She did start picking up the discarded tickets she came across (often tossed on the road she lives on/right down from a convenience store that sells tickets). She now averages $15 a week from the discarded tickets. That is $130 more in her pocket a month that she had purchasing tickets (She did win a little now and then). I think I need to find somewhere to pick up discarded tickets...

[Okra]

Get the ticket!!!!!!  You would always wonder what happened if you didn't redeem it for your free one!

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

We only buy scratchoffs occasionally (usually when buying some for the grandmothers' birthday/Christmas gifts), but the most money I ever won on a scratchoff ticket ($75) was on a $1 ticket, so you never know! Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever won anything more than $2 on those $5+ tickets. It's kind of "insult to injury" to win $2 on a $5 ticket  :glare:

 

Mostly we lose whenever we gamble in any way, so I've taken to saying that our family is lucky in love, and that's worth more than money--though I still would have taken some of the Powerball jackpot if it had come our way!

 

Anyway, I say get your free ticket, enjoy the little bit of a adrenaline rush it brings you, and consider it a story worth telling  :thumbup:

[creekland]

Can you redeem where you get groceries? It's almost worth it, if you don't have to make a special out of the way trip. (Take that for what it's worth because I am the type to also pick up pennies off the ground lol).

 

I don't know.  They only sell scratch offs via vending machine.  I don't know how I'd get a free one from a machine.

 

Get the ticket!!!!!!  You would always wonder what happened if you didn't redeem it for your free one!

 

I am inclined to think this way too.  It's sitting on my bar at home, just waiting, at the moment.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I don't know.  They only sell scratch offs via vending machine.  I don't know how I'd get a free one from a machine.

 

 

I am inclined to think this way too.  It's sitting on my bar at home, just waiting, at the moment.

 

Around here, liquor stores, convenience stores, many grocery stores, and even some delis sell them at the counters. Maybe there's another option in there for you? 

[Miss Mousie]

Tell the cosmos that if the new ticket is a winner, you will donate some/all of the $ to some worthy cause.  Then go trade in that ticket!

 

 

[Tanaqui]

Oooh, fingers crossed. If you win, it's like your award for loving Mother Earth.

[Seasider]

Congratulations. :party:

 

Dh had an employee who spent $20 every week purchasing lottery tickets. She also came to him for loans regularly. The last time she asked him for a loan (which he declined to give her this time), he pointed out to her exactly how much money she would be ahead if she stopped buying tickets. She actually took his advice and stopped. She did start picking up the discarded tickets she came across (often tossed on the road she lives on/right down from a convenience store that sells tickets). She now averages $15 a week from the discarded tickets. That is $130 more in her pocket a month that she had purchasing tickets (She did win a little now and then). I think I need to find somewhere to pick up discarded tickets...

I am intrigued by this discarded ticket business. Are people tossing tickets because they feel just one dollar isn't worth their time?

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I am intrigued by this discarded ticket business. Are people tossing tickets because they feel just one dollar isn't worth their time?

 

Maybe we're talking regular lotto-type tickets too? People are not reading their tickets carefully and missing small wins? 

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Oooh, fingers crossed. If you win, it's like your award for loving Mother Earth.

 

This is awesome.

[creekland]

Around here, liquor stores, convenience stores, many grocery stores, and even some delis sell them at the counters. Maybe there's another option in there for you? 

 

We have gas stations that are also convenience stores and sell tickets over the counter.  This is why I figured I'd have to be getting gas to redeem it - or at least passing by a station.

 

Tell the cosmos that if the new ticket is a winner, you will donate some/all of the $ to some worthy cause.  Then go trade in that ticket!

 

That's an idea... a 50/50 split between $ toward a dinner or trip and a charity we support.

 

Oooh, fingers crossed. If you win, it's like your award for loving Mother Earth.

 

Cute, but seriously... my reward comes by not seeing trash where it shouldn't be.  I love our pristine Mother Earth - not one with garbage on it.  Seeing garbage around is a big pet peeve of mine.  I've even been tempted to pick up tossed cigarette butts and throw them back in car windows they come out of telling the smoker, "Oops.  I know you didn't mean it, but you dropped this."  My first thought about the person who lost the lottery ticket in our school parking lot was not a good thought.  Now I suspect it was an accident.

[mamiof5]

Take it! And let us know what happened :)

[anneinco]

I don't know. They only sell scratch offs via vending machine. I don't know how I'd get a free one from a machine.

 

Here you just take to the help counter, they scan it and give you the money.

[creekland]

Here you just take to the help counter, they scan it and give you the money.

 

That might realistically be my best chance at winning anything if they do it here... so it could very well be the option I choose to be honest.  ;)

[Tanaqui]

Cute, but seriously... my reward comes by not seeing trash where it shouldn't be.  I love our pristine Mother Earth - not one with garbage on it.  Seeing garbage around is a big pet peeve of mine. 

 

Well, yes, virtue is its own reward, etc., but if you feel that strongly about it I suppose you can donate the winnings to a more worthy cause, like me Greenpeace.

 

I've even been tempted to pick up tossed cigarette butts and throw them back in car windows they come out of telling the smoker, "Oops.  I know you didn't mean it, but you dropped this." 

 

Oh, I go ahead and do it. Their little faces of confusion are tres adorable.

 

[abba12]

This is fate, that free ticket you get is totally going to be the $5000 winner!!!!

 

Ok maybe not. But you SO have to try anyway, for the fun of it. 

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Oh, I go ahead and do it. Their little faces of confusion are tres adorable.

 

I've been tempted to chase after people who have dropped litter on the ground as they walk, saying, "Excuse me, I think you dropped this!" But if they were to drop it back on the ground in front of me, I'm not sure I could control my mouth, and people are cray these days, yo.

[creekland]

 people are cray these days, yo.

 

This is what stops me.

 

But when I can, I still pick up after them, esp on trails or in parking lots or whatever.  I can't really do it when I'm in the car behind them stopped at a traffic light.

[Lanny]

Many years ago, when I lived in Texas, I was walking my Old English Sheepdog, near the house. I looked down and saw something. It was a Twenty Dollar Bill.    :hurray:    I think that also happened one other time, but probably not as much money.    I also found several Tools, while walking her in Texas...

[creekland]

The end of the story:

 

We went grocery shopping today (hubby and I often do this together as a date - don't ask - we're weird and yes, we're aware of that).  They did give me a dollar at the counter where they sell "number" lottery tickets.  I very briefly thought about buying another ticket at the vending machine when we left, but then a better thought occurred to me...

 

Ever since we've been married (27+ years) hubby and I have saved up all found money (picked up off the ground) to spend on our annual Anniversary trip (usually change, but the occasional dollar or two as well - ten once).  This buys us anything from a magnet for our collection to ice cream to lunch - occasionally combos of the above.  The ticket was found just as all the money in our jar is.  Therefore, the $1 is happily residing there waiting to be spent in August.  We have a total of $6.08 right now, so it's a significant boost.   :coolgleamA:   Granted, 5K would have been nice, but the odds truly were that I'd have thrown away the found money rather than having to go toward something fun in 6 months.  I'd rather have something fun then.

 

Sorry about not having a more spectacular storybook ending... but this is the real world, not the ideal world so I made my decision accordingly, for better or worse.

 

Now I need to figure out where other people discard tickets to start cashing in on that $15/week Lolly talked about!  Finding change on the ground is getting far more difficult than it used to be as our society turns cashless!  :lol:

Edited January 30, 2016 by creekland