I won £7.5k on the lottery but refuse to share it with my man – he's now sulking so I've secretly given it to charity
10/01/2024 03:56 AM
SHE was left stunned when she discovered she’d won £7,500 on the lottery.
But one woman has explained how her epic win was somewhat marred by the reaction of her boyfriend, who tried to “steamroller” her in to spending it on a car.
She opened up in a post on Reddit, as she explained that before the win, they were both living off her pay – as she works both full and part-time jobs, while he’s a full-time student who works in the summer.
“We both walk or take the public everywhere to save money,” she wrote.
“In the morning we stop at a corner shop shortly before splitting up for the day.”
While her boyfriend of four years allowed himself the luxury of buying cigarettes and coffee, her guilty pleasure was splashing out on lottery tickets at the weekend.
“He always makes fun of me for paying the ‘stupid tax’,” she continued.
“But I figure my indulgence is cheaper and doesn’t come with lung cancer.
“Sometimes I jokingly tell him not to expect a penny when I win.”
So when she did end up winning, he told her: “Fine, keep it all! It’s not like I’m crying over a penny of nothing over here.”
He also “dismissively” told her that she’d probably spent more than that on lottery tickets over the years.
“In response I asked what I should blow his half on for myself,” she said.
“I was honestly joking at the time but he suddenly became angrier than I’ve ever seen him and I didn’t want to admit I’d been kidding because he was so p**sed off it p**sed me off.”
His determination to use the money to buy a car also put her off sharing any of the cash with him.
“He keeps trying to steamroller me so I’m refusing to share the money,” she wrote.
“In all honesty I’m willing to spend or save the money for us but I don’t want a car.
“I won’t use a car and it will keep costing us money in parking and maintenance.”
She added that after “weeks of him sulking and lecturing me about his ‘entitlement’ to the money”, he took her to a car garage and tried to “embarrass” her into going along with a purchase in front of the salesman.
Curse of lotto winners
Despite hitting the jackpot, countless UK lotto winners have suffered astonishing tragedies and lost their fortunes.
Callie Rogers
Callie became Britain's youngest lottery winner when she won £1.9million in 2003.
The 16-year-old from Cumbria gave up her £3.60-an-hour checkout job and went on a spending spree, purchasing a £180,000 bungalow and a £76,000 home for her mum.
But she ultimately blew thousands on wild parties, three boob jobs and drugs, plus around £300,000 on designer clothes.
Eighteen years after her win, Callie was found to be claiming Universal Credit after blowing her fortune.
Michael Carrol
The self-styled 'King of Chavs' was 19 when he scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002.
The part-time binman, who was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket, immediately bought a £340,000 six-bedroom home in Norfolk.
He spent a further £400,000 on lavish home upgrades and dropped £49,000 on a BMW to park in his drive. He most notably invested £1million in Rangers FC shares.
Michael's wife, Sandra, left him over his incessant party boy lifestyle and took £1.4million from the divorce settlement. By 2010, he had declared bankruptcy.
Roger Griffiths
Griffiths and his wife Lara netted £1.8million on the National Lottery in 2005.
Quitting their day jobs, the couple enjoyed expensive holidays and luxury motors and also splashed £800,000 on a barn conversion in Wetherby, West Yorks.
After wannabe rock star Roger spent £25,000 making a music record, the couple divested into safer assets but the global financial crisis hit and rendered them worthless.
In 2010, their uninsured home tragically went up in flames – and all their funds dried up three years later.
Lee Ryan
Ex-jailbird Ryan scooped the £6.5million jackpot just 17 weeks after the lottery was launched in 1994.
It later emerged he was accused of handling stolen cars and was imprisoned for 18 months after his huge payout.
Once released he spent a decade enjoying his riches, even buying a helicopter and a £2million mansion but ultimately ended up penniless.
Lee was dealt his final blow when he took an ill-fated trip to Kyrgyzstan and invested the last of his winnings in property, which failed due to an economic crisis.
Gillian and Adrian Bayford
The loving couple's lives changed overnight in 2012 when they scooped a staggering £148million.
But just 15 months after the win, their eight-year marriage ended with both parties partly blaming stress on their mind-boggling win.
Adrian shacked up with ex-horse groomer Samantha Burbidge, who ended up bolting with his money, 30 horses, a horse box, and a car he gifted her.
Gillian was convicted of attacking her ex-lover Gavin Innes. She then moved on and started dating fraudster Brian Deans, who ended up in jail, and last made the headlines in 2021 for claiming nearly £40,000 in furlough cash.
Margaret Loughrey
Margaret scooped £27million in 2013 and became Northern Ireland’s biggest winner at the time.
However, the 48-year-old later admitted the huge fortune didn’t bring her any happiness.
She told local media: “Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life.”
Tragically, in September last year, Margaret, by now in her 50s, was found dead in her home.
Martyn and Kay Tott
The Totts got the shock of their lives when they realised they’d won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.
By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn’t find the ticket.
Computer records in their local Londis proved Kay really had purchased the ticket.
But a little-known rule stipulating that lost tickets must be reported within 30 days meant they would never receive the cash – eventually putting too much strain on their marriage and causing it to break down.
The woman explained that was the last straw and, when they “left without buying anything”, she went to her mums and “paid our rent up to the end of the year and donated the rest to charity”.
She concluded by admitting he still doesn’t know, and she’s unsure “how to come clean”.
“I haven’t told my boyfriend I spent the money I won because I was upset he was being a d**k,” she wrote.
“He’s already angry at me. What do I do?”
People were quick to reassure the woman that she hadn’t done anything wrong, with one writing: “You spent your money buying the tickets, it’s technically your winning money.
“It’s not like you’re married, that’d be a little different.
“He’s just mad that he didn’t support your buying the tickets in the first place so now he looks entitled.”
“I think you spent the money very wisely.
“Plus now he doesn’t have to worry about rent? He better not complain.”
She later shared an update in which she revealed she’d split from her boyfriend, adding: “It’s been really rough accepting he’s not the guy I fell in love with anymore but the way he’s been acting has made it a lot easier.
“I’m mostly angry I sunk so much of my time and money and compromised my future for him.
“But I guess it’s better I found out now instead of later.”
