A quick recap, I'm doing an experiment where every week I buy a scratcher lottery ticket, I am keeping track of the amount I spend and compare it to the amount I win. At the end of a year I'm going to see what the total is.
Week 23
In order to control the spending I came up with a set of rules and a plan to buy one of each available game. This week I'm buying the last of the $10 tickets and since I doubt they are going to come out with new games before the end of the year I should be able to spend less for the next two months. On ticket buying day I had $17.20 in the Tip Jar ( a term I use for any money I find or is left behind by customers, the money controls the amount I spend) so I had the funds for the ticket. It has a jackpot of $20,000 dollars so here's hoping....and I lost. So I'm starting out the month in the minus column.
And then I cheated. I had considered buying the Halloween themed ticket in honor of the holiday but decided to go with the $10 ticket instead. But on Monday I kept thinking about it. I looked at the ticket's numbers and they were really great, they made a gambling sense and it was Dios de la Muerte so I was still within the Holiday zone. Then I realized I was looking at the numbers on the wrong ticket and the ones on the Halloween one weren't gambling positive. And yet, I still bought the ticket. There was $9.25 in the Tip Jar and the ticket was $2. The jackpot is $500 and...I didn't win anything. Every time I break the rules I come up on the negative end. Oh well, for the rest of the month I'll be working my way down on the cost of tickets. I think any large access in the Tip Jar will be rolled over into the Alternative Funds for next year when new tickets will be coming out.
Week 24
I was tempted to buy two tickets, they were the last out of a pack and when they were gone I would have room for a new game. However I had already bought one from this game. Then a woman came in and bought the remaining tickets and solved that problem. Then I was tempted to buy the first out of the new game. It's a holiday ticket and the game and pack numbers were perfect and it was the first ticket, number 000. However I then realized I was reading from the wrong game and the numbers were just random and had nothing to do with the holiday. I guess I'll keep an eye on it and if ticket number 25 becomes available I'll have to buy it, but that is in the future.
Lately I haven't been looking forward to the Saturday purchase, I think it's because I knew well in advance which ticket I was going to buy due to the high amount of money in the tip jar. A certain randomness had been taken out of the game, and this week was no different. I had $11.04 in the Tip Jar and normally I would buy a $10 ticket but I'm doing one of each game and I already bought all the ten dollar tickets so it was a $5 ticket for this week. I had already bought all the other $5 tickets so there was only one left, the randomness of the game was missing. But from here on is low end tickets and there are plenty of them. I also don't mind losing a dollar or two a week.
Anyhow I bought the $5 ticket, with a potential jackpot of $50,000. And I lost. Later in the day a guy bought the next one in the pack and won $10, that figures. He thought he won $100 so I had to run off a receipt for him to prove I wasn't stealing $90. Next week I have my choice of several $3 tickets so the randomness of the game will be back. And I have plenty of money in the Tip Jar for it.
Week 25
Someone had been checking their tickets at the kiosk and tossed them in the trash. I dug them out to save for the woman who is collecting losing ones for tax purposes. The person had folded two together and threw away an unchecked one. It was worth $3 and had a potential payout of $30,000. I was saying that the experiment had gotten a little boring but it was actually exciting to see if the found ticket was worth anything. It wasn't but for a few seconds there was a but of the old thrill. Plus it didn't cost me anything.
I found a Panama Balboa coin in a roll of quarters. The exchange rate is equal to a $1 U.S. Since I bought it out of the drawer that means I'm 75¢ up so I tossed that into the Tip Jar.
This week I cheated and bought a ticket on Tuesday instead of Saturday, however there was a good reason, or at least a rationalization. You see it was 11/11, the wish day. So at 11:11 on 11/11 I bought $11 worth of tickets. I got the $10 draw ticket combo, one Powerball with Power Play for $3 (and a jackpot of $512 million), one Mega Million for $5 (jackpot of $900 million) and two state tickets for a dollar each ($6.8 million and $161 thousand). To bring it up to $11 I also bought a $1 scratcher, with a ticket number of 111. The jackpot is $1000, see all the ones? The scratcher was a loser and I have to wait for the drawings on the other ticket. But I don't have to buy a ticket on Saturday. btw, I had $10.82 in the Tip Jar so I had to take 18¢ out of the Alternate Funds to pay for the tickets.
I had been complaining about the game getting boring but buying the tickets had been a little exciting. The day at work had been slow but when 11:00 rolled around I got busy, were people going to be at the register at 11:11 when I needed to buy the tickets? There was one guy wandering around and he finally came up to the register, good he was gone. Then other people came in but they went to the restroom and didn't buy anything, whew. It was almost time when the first guy came back in, Oh No, he's going to screw up my plans but he went to the restroom and walked out before the purchase time.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, lucky numbers don't actually mean anything. They can speak to you, they can represent something good in your life, they can be your lucky number since you were a kid, but the randomness of the tickets will always be the same. Heck, Las Vegas loves gamblers with "a system", they never work. Having said that I checked two of my 11/11 tickets, I matched the Mega Millions number and won $10 and two numbers on one of the state tickets and won a $1. I didn't match any numbers on the Powerball or the other state game. Yes, I won $11 dollars on the $11 worth of tickets I bought on 11/11 at 11:11 AM. The universe is messing with me, right? Anyhow it's a push, I didn't really win, I didn't really lose, I broke even. Oh, and by the way, my winnings are up to $111.
I was once again tempted to buy more tickets this week. There is a Christmas ticket and I figured if it reached ticket number 24 or 25 I would buy one. However today is the end of my week and it's only at 22. Chances are when I came back on Saturday the pack would be past those numbers. However if I wanted them I would have to buy 22 through 25, four tickets. They are only a $1 each but that would be $4 more that I lost this week. It was a real internal battle but then I realized the maximum payout on the tickets is only $20 and the chances of getting one of those is pretty slim. In the end I would spend the money and at best win a free ticket, which would be a loser. I would be out $4 simply because of the numbers and if the universe wants me to buy them they will be there waiting for me. So I didn't waste additional money this week.
And then I did. When I got to work on Saturday I was logging in the lottery ticket numbers and discovered that the Christmas ticket was at number 025. Once again the universe was messing with me so I figured what the heck, it was only a $1 and happened to have a $1 in the tip jar. So I did it and I won! a free ticket. I considered just cashing it out and putting the dollar in my pocket but I said I was going to follow some of the rules so I got another $1 ticket. This one had a potential payout of $1000 dollars and, I didn't win. So even though the universe sent me another winning ticket I was down another dollar at the end of the week.
Someone won the Mega Millions before it hit a billion dollars. Now I won't be tempted to buy another one of those tickets. Of course the Powerball is up to $546 million and climbing.
Week 26
Halfway there. Since I planned to do this for a year this week is the halfway point. I had $11.04 in the tip jar but I had bought all the tickets over $5 so I could buy a $3 one. However I realized one of the games was down to the last two tickets and I wasn't going to order anymore since it had been around for a while and only had one more big jackpot left. As soon as someone claimed it they would pull the game. So I bought a $2 ticket with a jackpot of $50,000. I could use that money. However I didn't win. When I do replace the game it's going to be another $10 ticket so we'll see where we are Tip Jar by then.
I was going to stick to the rules, I wasn't going to buy more than one ticket, I was going to base buying tickets on the amount of money in the tip jar, I was only going to buy one ticket from each game pack. Yeah and then the Universe decided to mess with me. There is a truck driver that comes through several times a week, however he was in a bad mood and skipped his usual ticket this week. His other purchase came out to an even total of $27. And one game was on ticket number 27. It was a $5 ticket with a potential jackpot of $10,000, so I bought it. And the universe laughed at me.
The lottery also ordered a draw date for one of the second chance tickets, it will be in February. Fingers crossed.
Week 27
The state lottery has a Facebook page and they have a weekly contest. They ask a lottery related question, usually the answer is "don't become an addicted gambler" but one week they asked about all the fall activities people were involve with from hay rides to carving pumpkins. They had it like a tic tac toe board so I answered honestly "well, I got the Free Space" that was in the center, and I won. The prize is Lottery Bucks, basically 4 tickets worth $5 each that I can cash in for lottery tickets. So for the next four weeks I'm not going to have to pay for tickets, I got that going for me. I'm not counting them in my "win" totals since they aren't money but the same thing as winning a free ticket on a scratcher.
I found a $5 ticket! Perhaps I should have just kept track of the tickets I find for a year instead of buying tickets. Of course the money is found so it goes into the Tip Jar.
I decided to use $10 of my lottery prize on one of the new tickets we just got. (remember when I said there probably wouldn't be any new tickets before the end of the year? I was wrong) So I pulled the ticket, paid for it and scratched it off, it had a potential $20,000 jackpot but I didn't win, but not only that but it was the wrong ticket, I meant to get the one next to it. If that wasn't bad enough a woman came in and bought the ticket I meant to get, and won a free ticket. And if that wasn't enough a guy came in and bought the next ticket from the pack I had got the wrong ticket out of and won $20. The universe was screwing with me that day. The only good thing is I didn't spend any money to get the ticket.
They held a drawing for one of the Second Chance tickets, didn't win.
My total for the end of November
I spent $188 on tickets.
Won $112
Found four tickets worth a total of $65
Got a $5 lottery related tip
Won four Lottery Bucks tickets worth a total of $20 in free tickets.
Entered 43 Second Chance tickets on line (I bought four)
At the end of the month I am down $6
I also have $181.46 in the Alternate Fund
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