I scooped £5million lotto jackpot but still chase a bargain – £6.50 bacon roll is too pricey for me
A BARGAIN-loving couple who scooped £5million has told how they still like to scrimp and save.
Paul and Louise Drake, 47, scooped the whopping sum during the pandemic in August 2021.
But the millions in the bank haven’t changed their spending habbits – with Paul, who used to work at Lidl, still loving getting a good deal.
He explained at the time: “We’ve both worked hard all our lives, as did our parents before us.
“This money is absolutely amazing, and it will change our lives dramatically from a financial perspective, but we won’t let it change who we are.
“I’ll still chase a bargain and I definitely won’t be paying £6.50 for a bacon roll at the golf club.”
However, they still vowed to make some big purchases with their winnings.
The couple, who have two young sons, planned to go on dream trips to New York and Florida, while car fanatic Paul set his sights on a Porsche and a state-of-the-art Range Rover.
Paul had been heading out to work when he realised they had won the jackpot.
He said: “I car share with two colleagues, and it was my turn to do the driving.
“It was about 4:30 in the morning and I was just getting into the car when I had this niggling feeling to check my Lotto Lucky Dip numbers. I checked my ticket and just sat there in shock.
“Now, I’m not an emotional guy but I just burst into tears. I ran back into the house screaming and woke Louise up to tell her. We just couldn’t believe it.
“As I was the designated driver that day I still had to go and pick up the guys for work. It was so hard to keep it to myself. I went into the office and just said I wouldn’t be able to come in that day.
“The guys who I drove to work knew something was up and that I was acting strangely so it wasn’t long before people guessed. Our friends, family and colleagues are over the moon for us, they’re really chuffed, which is great.”
Curse of lotto winners
Despite hitting the jackpot, countless UK lotto winners have suffered astonishing tragedies and lost their fortunes.
Callie Rogers
Callie became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she won £1.9million in 2003.
The 16-year-old from Cumbria gave up her £3.60-an-hour checkout job and went on a spending spree, purchasing a £180,000 bungalow and a £76,000 home for her mum.
But she ultimately blew thousands on wild parties, three boob jobs and drugs, plus around £300,000 on designer clothes.
Eighteen years after her win, Callie was found to be claiming Universal Credit after blowing her fortune.
Michael Carrol
The self-styled ‘King of Chavs’ was 19 when he scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002.
The part-time binman, who was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket, immediately bought a £340,000 six-bedroom home in Norfolk.
He spent a further £400,000 on lavish home upgrades and dropped £49,000 on a BMW to park in his drive. He most notably invested £1million in Rangers FC shares.
Michael’s wife, Sandra, left him over his incessant party boy lifestyle and took £1.4million from the divorce settlement. By 2010, he had declared bankruptcy.
Roger Griffiths
Griffiths and his wife Lara netted £1.8million on the National Lottery in 2005.
Quitting their day jobs, the couple enjoyed expensive holidays and luxury motors and also splashed £800,000 on a barn conversion in Wetherby, West Yorks.
After wannabe rock star Roger spent £25,000 making a music record, the couple divested into safer assets but the global financial crisis hit and rendered them worthless.
In 2010, their uninsured home tragically went up in flames – and all their funds dried up three years later.
Lee Ryan
Ex-jailbird Ryan scooped the £6.5million jackpot just 17 weeks after the lottery was launched in 1994.
It later emerged he was accused of handling stolen cars and was imprisoned for 18 months after his huge payout.
Once released he spent a decade enjoying his riches, even buying a helicopter and a £2million mansion but ultimately ended up penniless.
Lee was dealt his final blow when he took an ill-fated trip to Kyrgyzstan and invested the last of his winnings in property, which failed due to an economic crisis.
Gillian and Adrian Bayford
The loving couple’s lives changed overnight in 2012 when they scooped a staggering £148million.
But just 15 months after the win, their eight-year marriage ended with both parties partly blaming stress from their mind-boggling win.
Adrian shacked up with ex-horse groomer Samantha Burbidge, who ended up bolting with his money, 30 horses, a horse box, and a car he gifted her.
Gillian was convicted of attacking her ex-lover Gavin Innes. She then moved on and started dating fraudster Brian Deans, who ended up in jail, and last made the headlines in 2021 for claiming nearly £40,000 in furlough cash.
Margaret Loughrey
Margaret scooped £27million in 2013 and became Northern Ireland’s biggest winner at the time.
However, the 48-year-old later admitted the huge fortune didn’t bring her any happiness.
She told local media: “Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life.”
Tragically, in September last year, Margaret, by now in her 50s, was found dead in her home.
Martyn and Kay Tott
The Totts got the shock of their lives when they realised they’d won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.
By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn’t find the ticket.
Computer records in their local Londis proved Kay really had purchased the ticket.
But a little-known rule stipulating that lost tickets must be reported within 30 days meant they would never receive the cash – eventually putting too much strain on their marriage and causing it to break down.
Louise went into panic mode when Paul rushed into the house at the crack of dawn, immediately thinking something was up.
She said: “I got such a fright thinking something was wrong, but he was shouting something about winning the lottery.
“At first I thought it was £5,000 and tried to go back to sleep. But obviously that didn’t happen!”