A couple from Ross-on-Wye, who struck it lucky with a Lotto win on a night they couldn’t afford to go out, say their big win will help them buy a home together and splash out on a new car.
Liz Jenkins and her partner Phillip Stephens were so excited at the win that they rushed to the store they bought the ticket from in their pyjamas to verify the win.
The couple are celebrating scooping £114,939 on Saturday, February 20 after buying two Lucky Dip tickets from a supermarket in Ross.
Talking about the highs and lows of matching five numbers and the bonus ball Liz told the Journal: “It’s quite surreal, and it’s all been a bit mad.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had so much money and you have to be careful not to get carried away.
“Phillip’s got two children who stay with us every other weekend.
“We haven’t been out for ages and have been a bit skint recently so we decided to stay in on Saturday even though we didn’t have the kids.
“We went to Morrisons to buy a bottle of wine and out of the blue bought two Lucky Dip tickets.”
The couple didn’t even watch the draw and only learned of their success the next day when Liz checked the numbers on the website.
“Even then she didn’t realise they had the bonus ball as well until her mother later pointed it out to her. “
We were so excited we went straight down to Morrisons in our pyjamas to see if they could verify the ticket,” she said.
After a celebratory lunch it didn’t take the couple long to decide how to spend their windfall and their priority is to buy their own house together.
Liz is wise enough to think carefully about how to spend the cash. “The majority of the money will go on buying a house. We have our eyes on a new build in Ross and this will mean we can have a good start in life. If you think about it once you take out a mortgage and buy a car there’s not much left. The key is to spend it wisely, if you do that you can be set up for life. We don’t want to blow it.”
Scaffolder Phillip and Liz, who works at her parent’s company in Gloucestershire, rent a two bedroom cottage together but are looking forward to having more room to accommodate Phillip’s children Beth, 14 and Connor, 12 when they stay over.
They’re getting back to day to day life after a whirlwind round of celebrating. “It’s so nice to know we’ve got this extra money but life goes on and we have to get back to normal, trying to catch up at work,” she said.
“My advice to anyone else is high numbers are always worth having as fewer people choose them.
“You never know you might just get lucky like we did.”
