Others have done it before me. From my initial Googling, I found a few people who did a scratch off lottery experiment using $1 scratch off tickets. I know the house always wins, but I keep finding myself going through spurts of playing, and when I have a spurt, I feel lucky. I buy a ticket; I win; I buy more tickets until the streak ends. I feel like I usually end up on top, but I never really keep track. I have fun, and I only spend money from my weekly spending money (we use an envelope system). In the lottery experiments I checked out, one man bought a $1 scratch off ticket every day for a month. He had some wins, but ended up down. Another man bought 100 $1 scratch offs all at once. He won more than the first man (apparently you have a better chance this way), but he still ended up down.
Am I really lucky or do I just fool myself into buying tickets every now and then? Only one way to find out. I need to keep track and do my own lottery experiment. Although I have a feeling I will not want to play again when this is over, I've decided to buy the equivalent of one $5 ticket a week for the rest of the year. I started the first week of February. My first three tickets lost, and I wanted to give up on my lottery experiment already. Instead, I decided to save my $5 for four weeks and buy four tickets in a row.
One of the lottery experiments I read donated all of the winnings to charity. I have decided to donate 20% of what I win and 20% of what I spend to charity. So, in addition to spending $5 on a lottery ticket each week, I am setting aside $5 in savings to cover my donation and give me a little reward at the end. Since I didn't start in January, I will end up with $240 in savings at the end of my experiment. I will also end up with a minimum donation of $48.
There are a couple of charities I am considering including Alpha Pregnancy Center (a non-denominational Christian based pregnancy crisis center in our area) and the Shriner's Hospital. As a child from a low-income family of five, when they discovered I had scoliosis, the Shriner's Hospital in Tampa, FL provided my medical care free of charge. I've never utilized Alpha Pregnancy Center, but having started motherhood as a single/pseudo-widowed teenage mother, I have a place in my heart for women who are in need of support during and after pregnancy.
If I win nothing in the next year, then I will donate $48 to one of these organizations (in addition to the regular donations we make to Alpha Pregnancy Center). If I win enough to increase the donation size to at least $100, I may split the donation. Either way, we'll see how it goes.
Am I really lucky or do I just fool myself into buying tickets every now and then? Only one way to find out. I need to keep track and do my own lottery experiment. Although I have a feeling I will not want to play again when this is over, I've decided to buy the equivalent of one $5 ticket a week for the rest of the year. I started the first week of February. My first three tickets lost, and I wanted to give up on my lottery experiment already. Instead, I decided to save my $5 for four weeks and buy four tickets in a row.
One of the lottery experiments I read donated all of the winnings to charity. I have decided to donate 20% of what I win and 20% of what I spend to charity. So, in addition to spending $5 on a lottery ticket each week, I am setting aside $5 in savings to cover my donation and give me a little reward at the end. Since I didn't start in January, I will end up with $240 in savings at the end of my experiment. I will also end up with a minimum donation of $48.
There are a couple of charities I am considering including Alpha Pregnancy Center (a non-denominational Christian based pregnancy crisis center in our area) and the Shriner's Hospital. As a child from a low-income family of five, when they discovered I had scoliosis, the Shriner's Hospital in Tampa, FL provided my medical care free of charge. I've never utilized Alpha Pregnancy Center, but having started motherhood as a single/pseudo-widowed teenage mother, I have a place in my heart for women who are in need of support during and after pregnancy.
If I win nothing in the next year, then I will donate $48 to one of these organizations (in addition to the regular donations we make to Alpha Pregnancy Center). If I win enough to increase the donation size to at least $100, I may split the donation. Either way, we'll see how it goes.
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