Week 11
This week's Sunday temptation was the game #666, I kid you not, that is the official game number. I was doing a count to see if I needed to order more tickets and I realized the game is down to its last 13 tickets and the game is in slot #13. This was the universe telling me the ticket was evil but probably a winner. However, I'm trying to stick to the rules so I didn't buy it. By the way, later in the week a regular bought the ticket but he didn't come back in so I'm guessing that he didn't win. Saved $5.
Someone won the Powerball so I don’t have to buy one for at least three months.
A guy came in and wanted to buy 6 lottery tickets, however the first ticket in the display was jammed, it was not coming out. I went and got the key for the rack and opened it up, somehow the ticket was folded back in on itself and really stuck in the feed wheels. I got out the 6 tickets behind the jammed one and then worked it out. It was in bad shape and nobody was going to buy it. I figured what the heck and got $5 out of the Alternate Funds to pay for it. The jackpot is $200 and I won...$5, so basically it was a push. I decided to put the money back in the Alternate Funds to save for another future purchase. I guess that worked out in the end.
So I was asking myself the usual question, since I already bought a ticket this week should I still buy a Saturday ticket? On the one hand the mid week ticket was a push, I won back what I spent, but on the other hand I generally only win once a week so if I buy a second one I'd probably lose. Turns out the Fates intervened and there was a problem at the station, the place is closed for the weekend I have Saturday off, I don't have access to the tickets. I could go to another retailer but I'd have to scratch off the whole ticket to see if I was a winner and if so I'd have to cash it in at that station. In the end I accepted this week's win and didn't buy a Saturday ticket.
Week 12
Someone hit both the Powerball and the Mega Millions so I won't have to worry about those for a long time.
Work has been a disaster lately, first the tanks got shut down because the accountant forgot to file important paperwork about the last inspection. So we can't accept a load of fuel until they pass a new inspection, and it's a pain to get a certified inspector to show up. While we were shut down they moved me to a different station that doesn't sell lottery, I started to wonder if I was going to miss this week's ticket, or would I have to go somewhere else and then cash it out there. But then a relay between the register and the pumps locked up and they need to get a technician to come check it out, so the boss moved me back to my station even though I can't sell fuel. So after all that I worked on Saturday morning and was able to buy a ticket for this week.
On Saturday I had $9.60 in the Tip Jar. There are three tickets I haven't bought yet, one $10 ticket and two $5 tickets.Two weeks ago I planned on buying a $5 ticket so I figured I would get it. It has a potential jackpot of $10,000, which would be nice. And, I actually Won...$5. So, for the second week in a row it's a push, I got back the same amount I spent. I haven't lost anything but I haven't come out ahead either. Well, next week I'll have a choice between a $5 ticket and a $10 ticket. Work is slow so unless someone loses 40¢ I'm probably have to dip into the Alternate Funds.
Week 13
It's Temptation Sunday, when I start thinking "these numbers are good, I should buy a ticket" or "the calendar date lines up perfectly for a Powerball ticket, after all it's just for fun" and then I violate my rules and end up in the negative. Today things were different, a guy came in and started buying tickets, he won some, he lost some. He wanted to tip me a $5 ticket, I would have preferred the cash but I wasn't going to be rude to him and took the ticket. It was one I was planning on buying in the future so I could check it off my list. It has a potential jackpot of $5000 so I waited until the guy left before I checked it, so he wouldn't get mad if I won big. It turned out to be a winner, $10. However this created a new problem, how did I count this in my overall totals. I didn't buy the ticket, it was a tip. I don't have to add the $5 into the amount I spent but do I include the cost of the ticket into my earnings? I decided that I would treat it the same as a found ticket. I'm marking down that I got a tip ticket but not into my earnings, and the $10 into the win column.
Also on Sunday one of the games was down to the last ticket and as soon as it was gone I could put out a new pack. I was tempted to buy it, especially since I was $10 up today, but sticking to the rules has been good to me this month and I don't want to mess with it, so I didn't. A customer came in and bought the ticket and it was a winner, $10. It would have been another push so in the end it was all even. And I still have Saturday's ticket to look forward to.
Crap, I came up with a good idea, I'm doing a collage out of old lottery tickets. I've been saving and chopping them up and will be gluing them down to form an image. The problem is I need more blue, and the only blue tickets are the cheap ones that people don't buy. I want to start on the project this week and so I decided I was going to do something, buy some blue tickets, I went ahead and bought 10 one dollar tickets which should be enough for what I want to do. The game has a potential jackpot of $900 so I checked them, I won a dollar on one and a free ticket. I got another of the same game and didn't win so I have 11 blue tickets for my project. This would have been good enough but there is another ticket with a lighter shade of blue that will really mix well. It's a two dollar ticket so I went ahead and bought 5 of them, they are twice as big as the $1 ticket so that will work out. The jackpot is $2100 but when I checked them and all I got was $2 back. In the end I spent $20 on tickets, got $3 back and one free ticket. I printed off a receipt in case I sell the collage and I can write the $20 off on my taxes as an expense. Now I have to cut them up and start laying everything out. Also since this is outside of the regular game I decided to take the money out of the Alternate Fund and keep track of the costs separately. You never know, they may put out another ticket that has a perfect color and I'll have to buy it too.
This week I didn't have to buy a ticket. Heck I don't have to buy tickets for the next four months. But, I've decided to keep my other project separate from my lottery experiment. I'm still going to count the wins and the losses but if I somehow turn a profit off the other project I'll roll the lost money back into the Alternate Funds and count it towards my wins, since it would be lottery based money. So this week I bought the last ticket I needed to complete the "buy one of every ticket" thing. That means next week I can buy a dollar ticket and stop spending so much money. There was only $7.57 in the Tip Jar and it is a $10 ticket so I dipped into the Alternate Funds for the extra $2.43. The ticket has a potential payout of $500, it doesn't seem like much but the odds are 1 in 7 as compared to most tickets, the odds are generally around 1 in 200,000. The ticket wasn't a winner by the way but I do like the color, it will work well in my project. OK, back to normal next week.
Week 14
We have a new lottery machine. When I set it up it wouldn't go on line. I spent an an hour messing with it but nothing. Then the boss called, he needed me to go work at another location so he told me to lock, I figured I would put it off until the next day. The woman who works the afternoons came in and opened the place. When I came in the next morning the machine was up and running. I thought it would be fun to buy the first ever ticket issued by the new machine but the system probably had come on line and she sold the first tickets during the night. However it turns out that it still wasn't working when she left, it was a state wide problem with the main system. This meant that I could still buy the first ticket, but which game. I shouldn't have done it but I decided to buy the $10 combo which includes the Powerball, MegaMillions, LottoAmerica and the Roadrunner, the state game. There was a grand total of 38¢ in the Tip Jar so the money came out of the Alternate Funds. I swore I was going to stick to the rules this time around and now I've violated them three times in two weeks. Well, maybe next week.
Powerball- no, Roadrunner-no, Lotto America-no, MegaMillions-no.
Despite wasting money on this week's draw games I went ahead with my usual weekly scratch ticket. I had a grand total of 97¢ in the Tip Jar so I took 03¢ out of the Alternate funds and bought a dollar scratcher, I picked it because I like the color and it will work well in my side project. The jackpot is $500 and I could use that money. I lost. Oh well, it's a really nice shade of purple.
Then a series of off things happened, first I found a twenty dollar bill by the pumps. The Tip Jar went from zero to $20 just like that. Then someone prepaid but they drove off without coming in to get their change. I now had $24.12 to buy tickets with. A problem came up, we got a new lottery machine, and they've been working through the bugs and things have been a mess. Well someone bought the last ticket out of a pack so I had to put out a new one. When I start a new pack I have to authorize it by scanning the bar code on the machine, but when I did it today it said the pack was already authorized, that ain't right. So, to make sure things were done right I had no choice but to buy a ticket. It was a $5 game with a potential jackpot of $10,000. The machine worked and, I Won! $5, it was a push. What a strange day.
And so ended March. I swore I wasn't going to break the rules and then did it multiple times. I need to dedicated myself to my side project so I can at least justify my extra purchases. We'll see what happens next month.
My March Total
I spent $62 on scratch tickets.
$14 on Powerball tickets.
Won $69
Found a ticket good for a free $2 ticket
Was tipped a $5 ticket.
No cash lottery related tips.
I entered 15 Second Chance tickets on line
At the end of the month I am down $6 in the regular lottery experiment.
I also have $180.00 in the Alternate Fund
The Art Project
I spent $20 on tickets.
I got one free ticket
I won $3
I'm down $17 but it's for art so....
So overall I'm down a total of $23 thanks to art.
