What would your life look like if you won the lottery. It’s just a way for some people to continue living their lives as they are.
Some winners leave their regular jobs to go on vacation and party in luxurious mansions and race supercars. Others choose to remain at work as cooks, plumbers, or supermarket shelf-stackers.
We take a look at the fortunate winners who lived a modest life, whether they drove second-hand Volvos or stayed in the family’s house.
Dinner lady job in a council house
Trish Emson still lives in her family’s old council house and has kept her job as a dinner lady, despite raking in £1.8million from the lottery in 2003.
The mum of two, who is now in her fifties and down to earth, stated that she would be “bored to tears”Without her love job, she would not have been able to serve meals to primary school students.
She also continues to live a frugal lifestyle, buying Primark clothes and driving a Kia.
Talk to The MirrYou can also visit our website.rTrish declared that last year she “doesn’t like showing off and bragging about money” “can’t be posh anyway”.
She continued: “To look at me you wouldn’t think I was a millionaire, but if I have to dress up I feel fake, I prefer my jeans.”
Instead, Trish and her partner Graham Norton, who works as a decorator, bought two caravans and sun themselves on holidays in Benalmádena, Benidorm and Ibiza.
Trish, who was five years pregnant after winning the lottery, claimed that it was a miracle she got pregnant. “better feeling”You will not win the cash prize.
Night shifts at M&S
Elaine Thompson scooped an incredible £2.7million in 1995, but still works night shifts at Marks & Spencer stacking shelves.
Despite being vulnerable and asthmatic, Killingworth’s key worker continued to work during the pandemic.
She said in 2020: “I did the 2am starts every day so I’m in from 2am to 9am.
“The company was fantastic. They let me go at 8.30am because I’m asthmatic and I’m vulnerable so I was not with any of the customers.
“I was leaving the house at 1.15am every morning, I get up at midnight.
“A couple of times during lockdown it was really hard. While driving to work, I thought. ‘What am I doing?’
“I could not have done furlough. I’m coming up to 65 next week but I’m not ready to retire yet.”
She said that she continued to work to be a role model for her children, who were 5 and 10 years old at the time of her win.
She said: “It’s important that children see you working hard.
“I absolutely love my job and just because I won the lottery, this didn’t make me want to give up work. It’s all about balance.”
She hoped to inspire her kids to go to college, which they eventually did.
Volvos on the Second Hand
Builder Steve Thomson, 43, still drives his wife Lenka’s second-hand Volvo after scooping a £105million jackpot in the EuroMillions.
After their amazing win in 2019, Steve bought a new van while Lenka bought a Volvo XC90.
But the couple did purchase a massive 14.5-acre estate with a swimming and tennis court, as well as a party barn.
Central Recorder spoke to Steve in May about how he continues to do his own DIY, but will soon be renovating the house.
Joe and Jess Thwaite drive a second-hand Volvo just like the Thomsons, despite their winnings on Euromillions May 2012.
The couple, who are 49 and 44, became the UK’s biggest lottery winners after bagging £184million, but spent just £38,000 of their winnings on an understated grey Volvo V60.
Neighbors said to Central Recorder, in June, that they were not surprised by their neighbor’s actions. “sensible” “respectable” purchase.
One said: “They’re mega lottery winners but first and foremost they’re down-to-earth people who have worked hard their whole lives.
“You might expect them to go and buy a Ferrari or a Bugatti. Instead of living the high life, they’re pressing ahead with their original plan to do the house up and make sure things are sorted as they’d originally planned.”
Pig farm mucking about
Susan Herdman has chosen to live a simple life to work on a farm of pigs. She wakes up at 6:30am to go to the barn and clean out the toilets.
The hairdresser from Hertfordshire had been struggling to pay the bills and couldn’t always keep the heating on when she won £1.2million in 2010.
She described her feelings at winning, and she said The Mirror in 2020: “There was no hysterics, no running round the room screaming. It was just a huge, ‘Thank God. Thank you.’
“Just absolute relief that if I was careful, I’d be OK financially for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t have to just constantly battle against the clock, squeezing in appointments.”
Susan, a single mother at the time, continued her hairdressing job for six months. Then she began to date Andrew, a North Yorkshire pig farmer.
She and her son Jake relocated to Andrew’s farm in March 2011 and she now spends her days helping out with the pigs.
She said: “It’s a hard life, but it’s a good life. Once you’ve been a worker, I don’t think you’re ever not going to work. You need a purpose to get up. I have to think of my son’s future as well.”
She did spend a little on a motorhome, but she also treated her sisters and parents to holidays and cars.
Dedicated plumber
A £14million win could not stop hard-working John Doherty from fixing up people’s plumbing.
He was a tradesman in Elderslie, Scotland. Alison, his wife, purchased the winning ticket.
Last year he said: “I’ll probably slow down a bit but I still want to keep doing it.
“That’s because it’s mine ‒ if I was working for someone else I’d be away.”
Cook at Watford’s fire station
Julie Jeffrey kept working as a cook in a fire station in Watford after raking in £1million in a lottery jackpot in 2002.
Chris, her partner, made the decision to pay off their mortgages and establish a trust fund for their children. They continued to live their normal lives.
Julie told the Watford Observer in 2019: “It is true that life has become more comfortable, but we still live a basic life and I’m doing the same job.
“We can use the money to help pay for bills or to enjoy ourselves, but if we gave up work, we would have to watch ourselves and what we spend.”