Kate And Allie episode 1-5

It was March of 1984. Ronald Reagan was President and in an election against Walter Mondale, the former Vice President and perhaps the worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen, I would often say that if by some miracle Mondale had been elected he would have been the first President forgotten in office. CBS was airing AfterMASH, a spinoff from the popular show MASH, it featured the post Korean war adventures of Colonel Potter, Klinger and Father Mulcahy, who were working in a VA hospital. After a year of low ratings and bad reviews the show was cancelled. The networks had began a new programming plan, mid season replacements, instead of showing reruns or fillers they would introduce new programs to take over the time slot. In this case it was the sitcom Kate And Allie. The show was about two recently divorced women sharing an apartment in New York City and jointly raising their kids.

Kate was played by Susan Saint James, who was best known for her roll of Sally in the crime drama McMillan And Wife, it was part of the NBC Mystery Movies, a rotating series that included other shows such as Columbo and McCloud.

Allie was played by Jane Curtain. She had risen to fame as one of the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live. After the producers had replaced the whole cast she did various movies and TV show until she landed the part on the new sitcom. Both her and Saint James appeared together in How To Beat The High Cost Of Living, a movie about a group of suburban women who plot a robbery. 

Kate's daughter Emma was played by Ari Meyers, Allie's daughter Jennie was played by Allison Smith (who had just come off of a Broadway run playing Annie), and Frederick Koehler played Allie's son Chip.

The early episodes also featured the reoccurring character of Roger, played by Jack Gilpin. He would show up in later seasons but only for a coupe of episodes. 

The show is an interesting time capsule of the 1980's. It's both a reflection of how situations were handled and how the network dealt with the balance between humor and the issues of the day, especially during the Reagan ideology. It also features pop culture and technology from, wow, 40 years ago. So, lets take a look at the series and see what life was like in the latter half of the 20th century.

Allie's First Date Episode one, Season one.

The first episode premiered on March 19th 1984, it ran between The Scarecrow And Mrs. King and  Newhart. It ran opposite the ABC Movie, Rich And Famous and the NBC movie Mr. Roberts.

In the first episode Kate rushes home to get ready for a date but leaves him, David, waiting in the living room with Allie, who is busy putting up wallpaper in a closet. The two have a great conversation while waiting, Kate and David have a so-so date and decide to pass on any future outings, however David then asks if he can ask Allie out instead. Kate, reluctantly, agrees and then helps Allie get ready, since it will be her first date since her divorce. She schedules it on the night her ex, Charles, is picking up the kids, she wants him to see her going out. The date turns into a disaster when Allie can't stop talking about her ex, her dreams of what life would have been and the divorce. When she gets home she hides in the laundry room while her ex drops off the kids so he'll think she's still out. Afterwords her and Kate talk about disastrous dates and plans for the future. 

Dated References

The show starts with Kate and Allie coming out of the movie An Unmarried Woman. It is a 1978 film about a woman who after going through a bad divorce finds herself having to make a choice between two men but in the end decides to go it alone. The plot of the movie is a reflection of the plot of the series itself. It's also interesting that theaters use to reshow older movies. Today you'd just stream it at home.

Kate works at a travel agency. In the 80's that was how you made travel plans but today you'd book your trip on line. 

When Kate comes home from her date Allie has prepared brandy and coffee for her and David. After Kate comes home alone Allie joins her for a cup of coffee and says "Cafe Amaretto, for times like these" The joke made sense back in the day thanks to the Taster's Choice instant coffee commercials.

Kate tells Allie her plan on getting rid of guys, ignore his calls, tell him she's busy and then make plans "for the future" that will never happen and hope that he'll get the hint and go away. Today people call that "Ghosting" however this was before the internet and the social media.

Jennie is on the phone several times during the episode on a land line. In 1984 cell phones were known as The Brick. They were expensive, had limited range and battery power. And they were only good for one thing, making calls.

Kate and Allie go to the laundry room to discuss the dating David situation, in the background there is a cardboard box with a real address and phone number for an art gallery that handled auctions and appraisals in the 80's, the real company went out of business in 1994. The number is real too, not a Hollywood 555 number and is active today however now it's a construction company that specializes in fixing up retail space in NYC.  The current occupant of the address is a wine shop.

When Allie's ex shows up she tries to make him jealous by introducing him to David. She starts talking dramatically and overacting. Kate makes the comment "She's doing Loretta Young", an actress that the kids didn't know. Well, some things don't change. 

While on the date Allie compares herself to the women on Phil Donahue, his show ran in syndication from 1970 to 1995 and was the top daytime talk show before Oprah came along.

At the end of the episode Allie asks Kate if she wants to get married, as in the two of them, Gay marriage wasn't legal in those days, except for "Domestic Partnership" in Berkeley California.

David is played by Kelsey Grammer, the same year he first appeared on Cheers as Fraser Crane. The character represented the idea of what men were like in the day, a professional businessman who has one date with Kate, decides she's not the woman for him, asks to go out with Allie instead and after one date moves on from her. He's kind of shallow and self centered. One hopes the male figures in the show get better as it goes along, hopefully.

The Very Loud Family

This episode premiered on March 26th 1984 in the same time slot as last week. It ran opposite movies on both NBC (Best Kept Secrets) and ABC (Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh)

The kids have projects for school. Chip is making a map, Jennie is doing fashion through the decades by making dresses of the various years for her Barbie dolls. Emma, glued leaves into a book. Allie suggests that Kate is being too lenient and should push her, so she ends up doing a video of a "modern family", hers. Jen gets a bad haircut and refuses to take off her hat, she's got an Annie Hall look going on, Chip wears his Spiderman costume. After a week Kate and Allie want Emma to wrap up her film but she wants to keep going, she gets mad and tells off her mother for pushing her. Allie has Kate keep going with the film behind Kate's back. The top projects are shown at a parents night, including the film. While videoing Emma's father calls and cancels their Saturday plans, Emma keeps it in the film because it's real.

Dated References

Kate is looking through old photos of their trip to Central Park. Actual physical photos, not digital on a phone. And she's pasting them in an album, not saving them to the Cloud. 

The girls are excited because they got the new Michael Jackson cassette at the record store. A little bit of history, Jackson didn't put out any albums in 84, he had put out Thriller in 82 and would follow up with Bad in 87 but nothing in 84. You know it was a name the writers knew and the audience would too. Kate compares the girl's excitement to when Sgt. Pepper came out. The girls are listening on a Walkman with the two headphone option, wired headphones.

For school Kate said she made a movie about Cesar Chaves and the grape boycott of 1970. 

The camera has a separate VHS recorded attached to it by a cord and it has to be carried around with a shoulder strap. Today you could record it on your phone without 10 pounds of equipment. 

Chip compares Jen's haircuts to Mr. T. In the day everyone knew who he was and his famous Mohawk.

While shooting her movie Emma filmed Allie coming out of the shower, she refers to it as "The remake of Porky's" The movie had come out two years earlier and was known for the infamous shower scene.

Emma's video is shown to the parents meeting on a big console TV with a built in VCR. That was high tech in 1984.

To convince Jen that there's nothing wrong with a bad haircut the family wears Groucho Marx glasses, with the big nose and mustache, to dinner. When Allie tries to take a bite she has to take them off and makes the comment "How does Gene Shalit eat?" He was a film critic for The Today Show and was known for his giant mustache.

Odd Boy Out

This episode premiered on April 16th, 1984. The lead in show was a Daffy Duck cartoon and it was followed by Newhart. It ran opposite moves on ABC (It's My Turn) and NBC (Jesus of Nazareth Part 2)

Chip comes home from school with a black eye. He's upset because his father never taught him how to fight back. Kate shows him how to fight, the world has really changed. Allie calls Charles, her ex, to tell him to take Chip and his friends to a hockey game so the guys at school will quit calling him a sissy, he offers to take the boys camping over the weekend. Chip says he wants to move in with his father, Allie is upset since the ex's new wife doesn't want anything to do with the kids. Surprise, Charles has an emergency and can't go camping so Kate and Allie host a "campout" in the living room. 

Dated References

Kate and Allie come out of the subway, a payphone is ringing. A working payphone, on the street. 

Chip gets into a fight at school but this is the pre zero tolerance era so nobody gets suspended. They explain it as Boys Will Be Boys. You can't say that anymore thanks to the Me Too movement. 

Allie is worried her son is growing up to be a "sissy". Wow, that wouldn't fly today.

Chip says he wants to be a Wookie and wants to call up the spirit of Darth Vader at a seance, boy, remember that movie Star Wars? Oh wait, that's still popular. 

The Family Business

This episode premiered on April 23rd, 1984 in its regular time slot. It ran opposite movies on ABC (A Long Way Home) and NBC (A Doctor's Story)

Kate is up for a promotion at the travel agency but gets passed over for the boss's son in law, so she quits. Allie decides that she should do something with her life but realizes she has no experience (we will find out why in a later episode). Kate gives a piece of Allie's cake to a local gourmet shop and they offer to buy two cakes a week. More places keep ordering cakes and things get out of hand, soon they are overworking because neither Allie or Kate will admit that this isn't what they wanted. Allie has a complete meltdown over the cakes so Kate gets her job back at the travel agency. 

In this episode we find out Roger, the upstairs neighbor, is married. 

Dated References

Allie calculates how much she can make off her cake baking, $70 a week, the cakes cost her $3 each to bake. She's really excited about that.

While baking cakes the family sings "Mammy's Little Baby". Wow, that would be called racist in the modern world. 

Kate is excited to date a guy who looks like Clint Eastwood. You have to remember that this was 40 years ago.

Dear Diary

This episode premiered on April 30th 1984. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite That's Incredible on ABC and the movie Adam on NBC.

Allie is reading an article about how men feel threatened when a woman moves her stuff into his place, she wants to move her stuff from her storage unit in Connecticut. She moves everything and overruns the house, Kate is not happy. Allie takes Kate's coffee cup, she's really not happy since it's her favorite mug. The kids find Allie's old diary, Kate finds out that Allie kissed her high school boyfriend. They have a fight over everything in the house so they come to a compromise, they have a tag sale and get rid of all the excess. 

Dated References

Subway $1.80 (in the modern world it's only $3.00 so it's actually a bargain) Cab Fare $5.40 (a cab will cost anywhere from $10 to $70 today) A candy bar costs 50 cents, in the modern world it's $2.00. When you do the math the inflation rate on candy bars is twice that of transportation costs. 

Kate compares Allies oversized salt and pepper mills to the World Trade Center. The 9/11 attack wouldn't happen for another 17 years, it was 25 years ago by the way.

Allie is mad that Kate stole her autograph book but all that was in it was Soupy Sales and Pinky Lee (tv personalities from the 1950’s)

Jennie does an imitation of Crazy Eddie, an appliance and electronic wholesaler known for his catchphrase “my prices are insane”. The Security and Exchange Commission discovered the company was using fraudulent accounting, Eddie fled the country but was brought back and eventually wound up in jail. His company was liquidated for bankruptcy in 1989.

So that’s the first five episodes of Kate And Allie. Watching this show is like going through an old scrapbook and saying “remember when…” I’m looking forward to what else I forgot about from way back when.

The Lottery Experiment February

A quick recap of why I'm doing this, people always talk about their big gambling winnings but never mention their losses. I wondered what would happen if you kept track, the money you spent versus the amount you won. So this year I'm going to buy one lottery ticket a week, based upon a set of rules, and see how things turn out. Wish me luck, or don't wish me luck based on our own superstitions. 

Week 6

I know the numbers don't mean anything. I know that everything is random and systems are a suckers bet. So naturally, since it was February Second, 2/02 I bought a $2 Powerball ticket at 2:02 in the afternoon. I paid for it out of the Alternative Funds, any money I happen to find that is greater than $20. The jackpot is at $65 million, way below my normal purchase amount but what the heck, I did it for fun. It would be funny if I win $2? Update, I didn't match any numbers.

Someone pointed out that Friday is 2/6/26. Once again I was tempted to buy a Powerball at 2:06 however it was my day off and I wasn't going anywhere near the job, not after this week. Plus numbers don't mean anything, the lottery is random.

This week I got new lottery tickets, just in time to put out a new pack of an existing game. There were also two games I had decided to not replace since they had been around for a while and were down to one jackpot, I figure they are going to pull the games soon. So even thought I had $8.86 in the Tip Jar and I could afford the new $5 ticket I went with a $3 game that I planned on buying last week. It had a jackpot of $1000, however I didn't win anything. 

A guy came in just to use the restroom. I don't care, go ahead. He came up to the register and gave me a $2 tip because they were so clean. OK, he didn't have to take it but I'm not going to turn down money. Since it wasn't lottery related I put it in the Tip Jar but didn't count it towards my year end total.

Week 7

This week's Sunday temptation was an interesting one. I changed shifts and covered the afternoon so my coworker could go to a Super Bowl party. A customer came in and his total was $7.77 at 2:07. Then I had a customer get $11.11 worth of stuff at 2:11. I got a new lottery game, 7-11-21 and the tickets are $2 each. I didn't buy it though.

However I thought about it for the rest of the day and decided to buy a Powerball ticket at 9:21, which is 21:21 in military time. Not only that but the Super Bowl final score 29-13, the draw date was 2/9 and the jackpot $113 million. When I checked the ticket on Tuesday I was two numbers off on the majority of the winning numbers including the actual Power Ball. The fates are laughing at me.

On Tuesday a guy came in and started buying tickets, one at a time, he'd go to the end of the counter to scratch them and then buy another one. He was buying the 7-11-21 tickets, one at a time, and bought until the #7 was available. Was it a sign? I don't know but I once again broke my rule and bought the $2 ticket, which turned out to be a loser. To add insult to injury the guy bought the next ticket out of the pack and won $5. I could have just let him buy the ticket and saw if it was a winner or not. Seriously, I need to stick to the rules. 

I already bought a ticket this week plus a Powerball so I didn't need to buy one, however it's February Fourteenth and I felt obligated to buy the Valentines game. The ticket costs $2 and has a potential jackpot of $5000. Well you know what they say, unlucky at love, unlucky at lottery. OK, so numbers don't mean anything so back to the rules next week. Plus there are a bunch of new games to choose from. 

Week 9

I have a $5 game that is down to the last ticket, I'm always tempted to buy it so I can put out a new pack. I got out my Decision coin (one side says "Yes" and the other "No") and asked if I should buy the ticket and then spun it on the display glass, the coin said "Yes", but then I gave it a second spin and asked if it was a winning ticket, the coin said "No". Also I was checking where I keep the tickets locked up and discovered that I didn't have a replacement pack of the game so even if I bought it I'd have to order new ones from the lottery and wait until Saturday to refill it. So I didn't buy the ticket. Instead I've started planning what I'm going to buy for this week. Update, someone bought the ticket but took it with them so I don't know if it was a winner or not.

On Wednesday when I went to work I found an unscratched ticket. I checked it out it was good for a free $2 ticket. Instead of getting another $2 ticket I got two $1 tickets that I hadn't bought before, one had a jackpot of $900 and the other is $500. The first one I checked was a loser but the other one was good for a $1. So in the end I'm a dollar up today. By the way, the winning ticket was the one I planned on buying on Saturday so now I have to figure out which one I'm going to buy on Saturday.

Considering that my winning record is usually one in four and this week I found a ticket good for a free $2 ticket, which I followed up with a winning ticket I should have passed but decided to go ahead with my usual Saturday purchase. I had $8.80 in the Tip Jar and I could buy one of the new $5 tickets but I decided to go with the lower priced tickets until I went through all the older ones that I hadn't bought yet, so I got the last of the $2 tickets. The jackpot is only $50 but there are more winning tickets thus better odds, however I still didn't win. If I don't do anything stupid in the upcoming week I'll end the month in the positive column. 

Week 10

My Sunday temptation was finding that three #21 tickets in a row, and the last ticket was the 7-11-21 game. It's as if the fates were telling me the ticket was going to be the big winner. However they have told me that in the past and the tickets always turned out to be losers. Later in the day some guy came in and bought a stack of tickets including several of the #21 tickers. However he left and I never got to see if the one I was going to buy was a winner or not.

This week will be 02/26/26. So there is the temptation to buy a Powerball ticket at 2:26, for $2. However that is a Thursday and I don't want to go by work. So I get a free pass on that one.

I had $8.07 in the Tip Jar so I could buy one of the new $5 tickets. However I had one ticket left in a pack and it's one that I'm not going to order again since it's down to the last jackpot and will probably end soon. Plus it's a second chance ticket so I figured if I buy it I can get one more entrance before they do the drawing. So I coughed up the $3 and bought it, and didn't win anything, and entered it on line. Hoping for that $3000 jackpot.

I had to work on Saturday night and I was tempted to try the "buy a ticket at the last second" thing again. However I got smart, I went outside and checked the trash cans instead. When I came back in it was past the time they shut down the machines during the drawings so I saved myself $2.

The good news is I'm ending the month $11 up, despite breaking the rules and buying unnecessary Powerball tickets. I need to stick to the rules in March.

Two of the Second Chance tickets are having their drawings this weekend. One already picked the semifinalist so I'm out of that one and let's be honest the odds are really high on the second one. They haven't drawn for the Million Dollar Prize yet so fingers crossed. I wonder if they'll offer a new one in the near future. 

My February Total

I spent $36 on scratch tickets.

$4 on Powerball tickets.

Won $51

Found a ticket good for a free $2 ticket

I didn't get any lottery related tips.

I entered 15 Second Chance tickets on line

At the end of the month I am up $11

I also have $192.46 in the Alternate Fund

The Lottery Experiment January

So I came up with a plan, I'm always hearing about people who won big at gambling but they never talk about thier losses. So I wanted to see what would happen if I kept track. The plan was simple, buy a lottery ticket once a week and track my spending compared to how much I win. Of course I didn't stick to the plan and started spending too much based on "good numbers" or "someone just bought multiple tickets, this pack is gonna hit" and other gambling traps. And at the end of the year I was in the negative, but that was because some guy came in, asked for specific tickets and after they were printed decided they were all wrong so I was forced to pay for them, honestly I would have ended they year with a $20 profit otherwise. Anyhow I've decided for 2026 I was going to restart the experiment and stick to the rules, very specific rules:

One scratch ticket a week to be purchased on Saturday only. No good numbers, no strong feelings, no distractions.

The tickets will be purchased based on the amount in the Tip Jar, the money that people leave behind on purpose or by accident, including any money found outside of work. 

If I find more than $20 the money will roll over into the Alternative Funds, which was created when I had a windfall of $200 which could be counted under "found money". 

Buy tickets from games I haven't purchased before. I plan to start off including last year's tickets, if I already bought them I'm go for a new one.

I'll also buy Powerball tickets but only when the jackpot exceeds a billion dollars and the money will come out of the Alternative Funds. 

So, for the rest of the year I'm gonna try to stick to the rules and see what the total is in December of 2026.

To start the year someone won the Powerball so I won't have to buy any for a while, so I won't be going into the negative column right away, until I lose on my first scratch ticket.

Week One

I started off the new year and the new experiment by sticking to the rules. I had $20.66 in the Tip Jar (Christmas people were either really generous or forgetful). There was a $10 ticket in the rack I hadn't bought, no magic numbers, not "someone just bought 5 so it's due", nope, just the one I needed to buy for the experiment. It had a potential payout of $500 and I started off my new experiment with...a $40 win! It's a great way to kick things off and if I don't get crazy this time I might end up in the positive column.

Week Two

So, just one day after buying a ticket to start my new experiment I was horribly tempted. There are a series of Christmas themed tickets and I realized one of them was at #25. Get it, Christmas, the 25th? Plus it was a ticket from a game I hadn't played before. However, I was four days into my new experiment and I vowed to not fall into gambling traps. Then a customer came in and wanted $21 in gas on pump #7. 21, the winning hand in Blackjack, 7 the winning roll in craps. It was as if the Universe was screaming at me "Buy The Ticket!" But no, I refused to give in to temptation, I was going to stick to the rules and if the ticket was still there on Saturday I would buy it. The next day the ticket was gone, someone had bought it. I asked my coworker if she knew if it was a winner and she told me the person checked it before leaving and sure enough, the Universe had lied to me, it was a losing ticket, I saved three bucks. The next day I got a message from the Lottery, someone had cashed in the last jackpot ticket and they were pulling the game. In the end I didn't buy any tickets from that game. And I still have a Saturday ticket to look forward to.

I made a decision that if the Tip Jar exceeded a certain amount I would transfer some of it to the Alternate Funds so that I wasn't tempted to get crazy with the spending. Well, at last count there was $31. 77 in tips so I moved $20 and left the $11.77 for future ticket purchases. Plus it made up for the $42 I had to spend on tickets I didn't want.

Ticket buying day rolled around. I made it without breaking the rules. Since I rolled the $20 into the Alternate Funds jar I had $11.87 in the Tip Jar. I got a new $5 ticket but instead of buying it I had decided to buy the $2 ticket from a game that might soon be coming to an end since there was only one unclaimed $1000 ticket left. Plus it was loose in the the case, I considered that a sign from the lottery gods. So I bought it and... didn't win. but I've stuck to the rules so I don't mind having lost. Now if I can just resist temptation for the next 7 days.

Week Three

This was a week of temptation. Sunday was January 11th, 1/11. One of the games was at #111 and I considered buying it at 1:11. It is a $2 ticket with a potential jackpot of $500, but it was a game I had bought before. I kept reminding myself that numbers don't mean anything and let it slide. 

One of the things that bug me is when a game is down to the last ticket in the pack, if I could sell that one I could put out the new pack. It is a $10 and has a potential payout of $5000, however I had bought the game before so it was a multiple violations of the rules, so I didn't buy it. Later my coworker told me she had sold the ticket and it wasn't a winner. See, obeying the rules paid off.

The lottery has a new second chance game with a potential jackpot of $4000 and someone left behind a ticket so I've started entering those. It doesn't cost me anything and we'll see. I need to go through the tickets I had saved from past games and see how many of them already had the drawing so I can throw them away.

Ticket buying day finally rolled around and I had $14.18 in the Tip Jar. I had recently got a new game, a $5 ticket with a potential $5000 jackpot. It wasn't a winner but it's a new second chance game with the chance to win $4000. As of this point there are no games over $3, for now.

Week Four

I'm starting to think that Sunday the day after "ticket buying day" is the most dangerous of the week. There is a set of tickets and they have interesting numbers, the Game is 659, the Pack is 6594. When I first put them out I was tempted to buy ticket number #004 however I said I was going to stick to the rules and not buy the first 5 tickets, a total of $25 by the way. When I came back to work it was well past ticket #004 and I forgot about it. This week I realized it was up to ticket #054 but I figured I would wait to see if ticket #059 came up, then the number sequence would be 6596594059, but I can't justify spending the money to get to the last ticket. It was a slow week so I figured the ticket might pop up on Saturday and even though I already bought one from the game and I know that numbers don't mean anything it would still be fun just to find out. Then, towards the end of my shift two guys came in and went nuts buying tickets. They kept winning and losing and buying random tickets. In the end they walked away $50 up and had bought multiple tickets from the packs. The game with the good numbers was up to ticket #058, I could break the rules, buy two tickets for $10 and see what happens. However just then my coworker walked in and we did a shift change so I left the tickets behind, to see what would happen tomorrow, however... Tomorrow rolled around and I came down with the flu, and didn't go to work. I was going to have to wait for another day to see if it was still available or did I miss the opportunity.

The good news is the guys on a buying spree bought five second chance tickets but left them behind. So now to enter them on line and see if I wen anything extra. Bad news, the entry deadline for one of the games has passed so that is four less tickets entered for the second chance.

Ticket Buying day rolled around. I had $10.36 in the Tip Jar but I didn't spend it all, I had bought all the available higher priced tickets so I went for a $3 one. I had several choices but I figured I would go with the one that had a potential jackpot of $30,000. I checked the ticket and, holy cow it was a $10 winner! I actually came out ahead. I guess following my self imposed rules worked out after all.

By the way, someone won the Powerball so I won't have to worry about that coming around for a while, probably for at least 3 months. That's money I'll save.

Week Five

This has been a really slow week and the ticket with the "perfect number" is still in the case, behind a ticket with a not perfect number. All week long I've been tempted to buy both just to see, and all week long I've managed to avoid buying them. Thankfully the next time I am at work will be Ticket Buying Day and so no matter what happens I'm not spending an unnecessary $10. There was another ticket that had an interesting set of numbers but someone bought it then checked it and it wasn't a winner, once again proving that numbers don't mean anything.

When I went in on ticket buying day rolled around the game with the good numbers was gone, someone had bought it. Now I'll never know if it was a winner or a waste of money. That could be the worse thing about gambling, wondering about the bets you didn't make. 

On ticket buying day I had $8.32 in the tip jar. There was a $2 Christmas game I hadn't played so I decided to go with that one. It has a potential jackpot of $500 which would be a good payoff. I didn't win, but it's only $2 so I'll actually end the first month of my new experiment in the positive column.

My January Total

I spent $22 on scratch tickets.

I didn't buy any Powerball tickets.

Won $50

Didn't find any winning tickets that someone else had lost.

I didn't get any real tips.

I entered 5 Second Chance tickets on line

At the end of the month I am up $28

I also have $194.46 in the Alternate Fund

The Lottery Experiment December

 So here's the recap, I've started an experiment where every week, or so, I buy a lottery scratch ticket. I'm keeping track of how much I spend verses how much I win and at the end of a year, 52 weeks, I plan to see what the plus or minus total is. I also have a bunch of rules to control my spending and on a regular basis I violate those rules.

Week 28

I've been watching a Christmas scratcher game and it finally reached ticket number 24. I know numbers don't mean anything but come on, it's a Christmas ticket, I had to buy it. I still had $10 in the prize tickets I had won from the lottery so I figured I would use them. I cashed the prize tickets in and got the Christmas ticket #24 and #25. They have a potential jackpot of a $1000 each, however I didn't win. The good thing is they are second chance tickets so I'll enter them on line. Maybe the Christmas magic will still happen. Also since I used the free coupons it didn't add to the amount I spent.

GRRRRR, a guy came in and wanted various draw tickets. I read back what he had asked for and printed them out, and that's when he told me they were wrong. I had to redo the tickets but the thing is since they were already printed out I ended up having to pay for them, $42. I don't know why these people don't use the slips, you fill them out, the machine scans them and you get exactly what you want. If he wasn't such a good customer I would have made him pay for it. The next time I'm going to go through ticket by ticket and make absolutely sure it's what he wants. Some people. It would be bad Karma to wish he doesn't win squat, right? I figure I'll take the $42 out of the Alternative Funds. And since they were multiple draw tickets I might count them as my lottery spending for the next two weeks.

the first drawing came up for the tickets I was forced to buy and I won a $1 back. And then I lost on all the other tickets. Oh well, I wanted to know how this gambling thing would turn out. 

A guy came in to buy multiple lottery tickets and had several bills stuck together. He was grateful for me being honest and giving him his money back and tipped me $2. Since it's lottery related I'm counting it in my final totals.

Week 29

In the middle of the week one of the games ended so I had to pull the tickets from the case and the placard from the display. As I was doing that one of the other tickets fell on the floor, I guess the perforation had given up. I could have just put it back in the display case by pushing it on top of the next ticket in the pack but perhaps The Fates wanted me to buy it. The ticket was a $1 and had a potential jackpot of $500, and I hadn't bought one out of the game pack. I had $15.07 in the Tip Jar so I figured what the heck and bought it, and I Won!....a free $1 ticket. I decided to go with another ticket I hadn't bought but it had a low payout of $25, but more chances to win, and I lost. Oh well, it was just a dollar.

Oh great, the Powerball just hit a billion dollars. This means I'm gonna have to buy one. Well, I'll take the $2 out of the Alternative Funds to pay for it. Of course if I win the billion dollars it will ruin my experiment. I guess I'll have to take that risk.

I decided to go ahead and buy a Saturday ticket, even though I had bought one this week. There was $14.07 in the Tip Jar so I could buy a $10 ticket, I had a choice of two new ones. I decided to go with the one that had a potential payout of  $5000, I even spun my lucky coin and it landed on on top of the ticket I was planning on buying. And, it was a loser. Also the Powerball is up to $1 billion dollars so I went ahead and spent the $2, from the Alternate Funds. When I checked the ticket on Sunday I matched a number! But since it wasn't the Powerball it doesn't mean anything. I shouldn't buy anymore Powerballs.

I didn't work yesterday on 12/12 so I wasn't tempted to buy $12 worth of tickets at 12:12. Today I was considering buying my sister in law one each of the Christmas tickets as her present this year. I figured I could buy them at 11:11 since the total for the tickets would be $11. I then realized the date is 12/13 and I should buy a Powerball ticket based on the date and time, however the optimum time would have been at 10:11, 10:11 12/13, get it? However it was almost noon. Later I considered I could do it at 12/13 14:15 military time. But I didn't do it. Instead I decided that for once I was going to ignore the numbers and didn't buy any tickets.

Week 30

The Powerball went up to $1.1 billion. I spent all Monday being tempted to buy one even though I promised myself I would only do it on Saturday. I came up with a time/date combination but just then a mob of people showed up and it passed. Then I got one of the forms and randomly picked numbers "to see what would happen" but again, a mob of people showed up. I figured it was the Universe telling me to wait until Saturday. I did one more test with my Decision Coin and it said "No", twice. So I finished out the day without buying a ticket.

Like I said before I had decided to buy my sister in law Christmas scratchers for her present. Since I was going to spend the money I went ahead and throw in the extra $2 to get myself a Powerball too. The jackpot is up to $1.250 billion. We'll see. Also I didn't count my sister in law's tickets among my spending since I wasn't going to win anything from them, they are outside of the experiment. (btw, they didn't open their presents while I was there so I have no idea if she won or not)

There was one ticket left in the display, when I sold it I could put out a new pack, but today is my "Friday" and I doubted anyone was going to buy it before the end of the day. So, it's $5 with a potential payout of $200. I had $15.83 in the Tip Jar and I figured what the heck, I bought it, even though I broke two rules since it wasn't Saturday and I had also already bought one of these tickets. And...wow I won, $10. So breaking the rules paid off for once.

Powerball update, didn't match a single number. Why the heck so I keep buying these things? Worst of all the jackpot went up to $1.5 billion. Yep, I'll buy another one. 

So Saturday came around and I didn't need to buy a ticket since I bought one earlier in the week. I had decided to go ahead and buy a Powerball ticket, after all it is up to $1.5 billion dollars and then I can tell my boss to screw off. (Yeah, we all know that isn't happening). Then I put out a new game, it was at ticket number 000 and I had to know, it was only a $1 and had a potential payout of a thousand dollars and I had And I had $10.93 in the tip jar, I lost by the way. If this wasn't enough there is a game I figure is going to be pulled by the end of the year and I had planed on buying it this week. When I got to work someone had pulled one of the tickets from the display but had just set it back in so when I was doing my paperwork it fell on the floor. I figured what the heck so I bought it. The ticket was $2 and the payout was $5000, and I won! $5. So between the Powerball, the dollar ticket and the two dollar ticket I broke even.

Later in the day I realized that one of the games was down to the last ticket. If I could sell it I could put out a new pack, however I doubted anyone would. So, what the heck I had ended the day even so I bought the $5 ticket, it had a potential payout of $1000 and even when I lost it was a second chance ticket and they were probably going to end that in two weeks so I could do one more entrance on line. And I won! Another $5 So even though I spent $10 today I won $10, it was a push.

Well, I matched two numbers in the Powerball, which isn't worth anything. And it went up to $1.6 billion. I know I'm going to buy another ticket, I'm not even going to pretend. I matched a number and as we know, that means nothing.

But next week, I'm gonna stick to the rules, one ticket based on what I can afford from the Tip Jar only.

Week 31

This will be the last ticket buying week of the year. If I can hit a ticket for $50 I can end the year even.

So recently it seems the universe has been sending me tickets, two were loose in the rack and one was the last ticket in the pack, and they were winners. I went into work and as I was writing down the numbers on the inventory sheet one just fell off, I guess the perforation had given up. However I just wasn't feeling it so I worked it back into the rack. Later a guy came in and bought that very ticket. He then went to the end of the counter and scratched it off, but he couldn't tell what he was suppose to do so I scanned the bar code and....I'm glad I didn't waste a dollar on that losing ticket. 

The Powerball went up, I said I wasn't going to buy them because they are a waste of money and are only pushing me farther into the negative. However it's over $1.7 billion dollars so I bought one. I decided to play the Universal numbers game again so on 12/23 at 12:23 I bought a ticket. I almost wasn't able to do it because during the countdown some guy came up to the register and was taking his time. However he finally left with just enough time to buy the ticket. The numbers suck by the way. Woo Hoo! I matched a number! Which means nothing.

Sometimes people drive off without their change and that happened today. However the guy had prepaid $100 and his change was $35. I rang it out, printed a receipt and put it aside. After a week I figured he wasn't coming back. I count this as Tip Money but I decided that anything over $10 will go into the Alternate Funds. It makes up for what I lost on the tickets I had to pay for when the guy gave me the wrong information. However the money isn't lottery related so I can't count it in the Win column. 

I know I shouldn't but I bought a second Powerball ticket for the Wednesday drawing. I was trying to see how close to the closing of the tickets sales I could get. I had to work the afternoon shift because my coworker was going to travel to see relatives she hadn't seen in a long time. The machines shut down at 8PM just before the drawings so I decided to see how close to the deadline I could get however as I was reaching the end of the count down someone came in and was going to screw the whole thing up. I ended up buying the ticket at 7:59:32. 28 seconds before I wanted to. I came close to several numbers, but didn't match any.

When I got to work for my afternoon shift I was checking the building and there was a ticket in the trash next to the lottery kiosk. It's a force of habit but I check them to make sure the person who tossed them didn't pay attention. And the ticket was a $10 Winner! So that worked out. Almost half my lottery winnings came from found tickets.

On Saturday I had $5.29 in the tip jar. The original rule was to spend the maximum amount on the a ticket but I already bought all the five dollar ones. On Wednesday I got a new pack of $3 tickets and I was tempted to buy the first one but I sold it right away. OK, the second one then, but a woman came in and bought three. So on Saturday I bought the fifth ticket with a potential payout of $500, and I didn't win anything. Later in the day the woman who had bought the ticket I had considered buying came in and she had won $30.

OK, I hadn't planned on it but I bought one more ticket before the end of the year. It was one of the Christmas tickets and yes it was number #025. How could I pass it up? It was a $5 ticket (which I've bought before) and had a potential payout of a $1000 and I had $20.46 in the tip jar. It wasn't a winner, I should know by now that numbers don't mean anything. The only good thing is it's a second chance ticket so I got that to look forward to.

My total for the end of 2025

I spent $273 on tickets. (people lose a lot of money in the course of a year by the way)

Won $169

Found five tickets worth a total of $75

Got $7 in lottery related tips

Won four Lottery Bucks tickets worth a total of $20 in free tickets.

Entered 45 Second Chance tickets on line (I bought seven)

I ended the year down $22 (I'd be up $20 if it wasn't for that one guy)

I also have $174.46 in the Alternate Fund

So far my experiment has proven that the house eventually wins. Lets see what happens next year.