FLASHY motors, lavish mansions and luxury holidays are some of the obvious splurges after a lottery win – but not everyone thinks the same.
One lucky ticket holder became Britain’s biggest ever lottery winner last night after scooping a monster £184million EuroMillions jackpot.
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The eye-watering sum surpasses Joe and Jess Thwaite, who won £184million in May 2022.
When it comes to spending their millions, perhaps they could join Laura Hoyle and Kirk Stevens, who revealed earlier this year that they had splashed their jackpot on “bucket list” ghosthunting trips.
The couple, from Nottingham, won the National Lottery’s Set For Life draw last year, which gives them £10k every month for 30 years.
Laura and manufacturing engineer Kirk aren’t the only ones to use their lotto win cash for something unusual – here we recap the more unusual spending habits.
‘We gave away £60m’
A £115million jackpot is probably enough to not just change your life, but the lives of everyone you’ve ever cared about too.
Which is probably why Frances and Patrick Connolly decided to give over half of their winnings to 175 people.
When the couple’s numbers came up they decided to celebrate with a cup of tea in their modest rented home in Moira, County Down.
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Then they gave away half of their winnings, starting with 50 friends and family.
“That’s £60million-worth of love,” Frances said. “I’ve had more joy from changing lives than buying jewellery.
“I knew from the start that I’d never become part of the jet-set.”
The Connollys did splash out on a £1.9million five-bedroom house, a second-hand Jag for £2,000 and a trip to New Zealand flying business class.
Lotto cash ‘flushed down the loo’
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In 2014, Angela Maier reportedly flushed her €400,000 – around £303,500 at the time – winnings down the loo to stop the cash being used to pay for care home bills for her late husband.
The German jackpot winner was said to have been stumped with a bill from the home that cared for her husband before he passed away shortly after her win.
But instead of paying, she claims to have drunk five bottles of Champagne and tore up all 800 of the €500 notes she won and flushed them down the toilet.
A court heard it wasn’t technically illegal for her to have destroyed the money.
But Maier ultimately agreed to pay €4,000 (£3,310) in compensation to settle the case, the Mirror reports.
Boobs jobs for the family
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Sarah Cockings from Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear won £3million in April 2005 at the age of 21.
Despite her vast fortune, she claimed to “live a very normal life” aside from one shocking splurge.
“Just after I won, I bought my two sisters boob jobs but now I’ve had one myself, because mine were wrecked by breastfeeding,” she told the Daily Mail in 2019.
Sarah “loved” her surgically enhanced chest and also went back to university so that her mum could have a “picture of me graduating”.
Eight years after winning the lottery she quit her job as a social worker and pursued modelling opportunities.
“Up until now there’s no bad part of being a millionaire – I’ve loved every minute,” Sarah added.
Loos named after us
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Retirees Dennis and Shirley Banfield were unsure of how to spend their £18million National Lottery win in 2018.
The couple from Winterbourne, Bristol, appeared to have gone a bit potty when they settled on a plan
In 2019, Denis told the Mirror: “When we read that it needed new toilets, we donated £20,000 for the work and cut the ribbon outside the Ladies and Gents ourselves at an official ceremony
“We joined a lunch at the centre… and a man got up to use the loo [and] said, ‘I’m just off to use the Banfields’ which really made our day!”
Became a pig farmer
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Former hairdresser Susan Hardman was in financial difficulties when she won £1.2m in 2010.
After discovering she claimed the jackpot, she turned up the heating and celebrated knowing she would “never be cold again”.
Since then Susan traded a life of being “perfectly groomed” with nice clothes and make-up for “always smelling of pigs”.
In 2015, she told the Daily Mail that she found “more satisfaction” as a pig farmer but claims her friends “think I’m crazy”.
Shared £12.4m with family
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One EuroMillions-winning couple kept their eye-watering £12.4million jackpot a secret before splitting the cash with 30 friends and family.
Sharon and Nigel Mather from Trafford, Greater Manchester, scooped the prize in 2010.
They then created a spreadsheet detailing who they wanted to share their newfound fortune with.
“It wasn’t about showing off,” Sharon told the MEN. “It was about helping the people close to us and not lying.”
They’re not the only lottery winners who’ve given their mind-boggling moolah away.
Frugal farmer’s splurge
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Bob Atkinson and his wife Margaret won £30,000 in the People’s Postcode Lottery.
But the farmers, from Lancashire, surprised many when they revealed their plans for the cash.
“We need some fertiliser for spring and that’s gone up to nearly £1000 a tonne,” Bob, 77, told The Scottish Farmer.
“So that’s one of the first things we’ll need to buy… That’s our life, that’s what we do.”
He revealed the dosh would help keep his 100 acres in check as well as the 50 cattle, 150 sheep and horses.
Lotto angel
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Former hospital worker Barbara Wragg and husband Ray won a whopping £7.6million in 2000.
The generous couple from Sheffield gave £5.5million to friends, family, and good causes including cancer charities and hospitals.
The Wraggs paid for 250 inner-city kids to attend the pantomime for six years running and travel costs for 60 veterans to attend a reunion of the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy.
The couple said it was “too much for two people” but spent the remaining cash going on 29 cruises around the world.
When Barbara sadly passed away aged 77 in May 2018, hundreds of people were expected to attend her funeral.
To this day, she’s known as the Lotto Angel in Sheffield.
“It’s probably a bit selfish giving money away sometimes because we did get pleasure from it,” Barbara once said.
Bad luck lotto winners
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Dave and Angie Dawes shared some of their £101million in 2011 by giving £1m to between 15 and 20 friends.
They told the Guardian at the time that they wanted to gift “anyone who has helped us through our lives”.
Despite their generosity, Lady Luck soon turned on the couple when in 2017, their son Michael sued them for more cash after he blew through gifts of £1.6million in two years.
A judge ultimately dismissed the case after hearing of Michael’s “astonishing” level of expenditure, which included a £1,000 weekly grocery bill.
Then in 2019, Dave and Angie were tied up and robbed by a gang in their luxurious mansion.
Dave was hit in the face before the pair were restrained with cable ties in their home, which was once owned by Tom Jones.
The thieves made off with jewellery and around £20,000 cash in the couple’s Range Rover, which was later found burned out.
‘To hell and back’
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Maggie Loughrey was unemployed and living on benefits of £58 a week when she won £27million on the EuroMillions in 2013.
At the time, Maggie from Strabane in Northern Ireland said she planned to keep just £1milllion of the jackpot for herself.
By 2014, she revealed she’d already given away £13.5million and planned to spend the remaining £12.5 transforming her beloved home town.
But despite her generous plans, Maggie has made headlines in more recent years for legal troubles and rows with local sporting groups.
She even said the win had sent her “to hell and back”, despite her financial situation before hitting the jackpot.
“Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life,” she told Sunday Life in 2019.
“I have had six years of this. I don’t believe in religion, but if there is a hell, I have been in it.”
She added: “I regret winning the lottery, of course I do. I was a happy person before.”
