I won $160,000 in a lottery and spent it all. Here's how I had fun and invested in my future.

Olivia Love won the lottery and started a business. Courteys of Picture This by Caitlin

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Olivia Love, 37, a wedding content creator from Glasgow. She won £10,000 a month on the UK's National Lottery Set for Life game. Business Insider has verified her winnings and business expenditure. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.

I used to work on the kiosk at a supermarket that sold lottery tickets. Occasionally, I'd buy a few myself, but I never won anything significant.

One evening in May 2025, I bought six lottery tickets. I went to bed, and when I woke up, I found out we'd won a heck of a lot of money: £10,000 ($13,400) a month for a year, the equivalent of more than $160,000 in total.

We could have bought a house with that money, or we could have saved every penny. Instead, we carried on renting, saved nothing, and I created my dream job while giving my family the best year of our lives.

Money was always a source of stress

My husband was a truck driver, and I worked 17 hours a week at the supermarket to help pay for childcare for our kids, who are now 16, 6, 4, and 2. Money was always a source of stress. I'd say we were on the breadline.

We always had enough to pay the rent and the bills, but there was never anything left over at the end of the month. We often couldn't afford to fill up the petrol tank in one go or pay for our children's birthday parties, and we tended to buy their presents at secondhand markets. If the washing machine had broken, for example, we wouldn't have been able to afford to replace it.

We were getting by and were happy, but a little more money would have helped us a lot.

Winning didn't feel real

On the morning of May 15, 2025, I was in bed scrolling through my phone when I received an email from the National Lottery saying I'd won a prize. I assumed it would be £5 or something small.

When I logged onto the National Lottery website, I saw that we'd won £10,000 a month for a year. I called my husband, who was already at work. Even after someone from the National Lottery called later that morning to confirm the prize, it still didn't really sink in.

For days, it felt like someone would pinch me, and I'd wake up from this really vivid dream. Over time, though, a new feeling emerged: I no longer had this niggling worry about how many miles I had left in the tank or how much money was left until the end of the week. I felt far less stressed.

We chose not to spend our money on buying a house

My husband and I sat down and talked about what we wanted to achieve with our winnings.

Our natural instinct was to buy a house, but we quickly decided against it. We hadn't won enough to buy a house outright, so we'd need a mortgage, and we didn't even know whether the bank would give us one.

We worried it would make us less financially secure. Instead, we decided to keep renting our place and have the best year of our lives. Our strategy was simple: pay the bills, and whatever was left was ours to spend.

The first thing we bought was a new car for my husband. His old one was about 15 years old, had 140,000 miles on it, and the air conditioning didn't work. We couldn't afford to fix it and put off replacing it.

We also decided to have a second wedding. We first got married in December 2024 in a very small registry office ceremony with our immediate family. We scrimped and saved for months to pay for it, with financial help from both of our parents.

For our second wedding, in December 2025, we hired the pub where we'd had our first date. We had a photobooth, a buffet, a DJ, a saxophonist, a magician, and a celebrant to renew our vows. It was the best night ever.

We also had our first family holiday abroad this year, to Turkey. It has been the perfect year.

I created my dream job as a wedding content creator

I initially decided to give up work for a year, but then I worried about explaining a gap on my résumé to future employers. I figured that after 20 years in retail, it was the perfect time to change careers.

I love weddings and capturing all the joyous moments, and I suddenly had the money to start a wedding content creation business.

Olivia Love spent her lottery winnings on creating her dream job.  Courtesy of Picture This by Cailtin

In the first six months, I spent about £7,500 setting up Moments by Love. I bought everything I needed, from new phones to microphone equipment. I did my first few weddings for free or very cheaply to build up a portfolio. You have to spend money to make money.

The job makes me so happy, and because I mostly work weekends, I'm at home during the week to take my children to and from school, and put them to bed. I wasn't always able to do that before.

This new career has given me freedom. I've basically created my dream job.

I don't regret spending all the winnings

The final instalment from the National Lottery came in April 2026. It was a complicated feeling, almost bittersweet. On the one hand, it was sad, but I'm also excited about my business. I truly believe I've put myself in a good position for the future.

In the end, I made the decision that was right for my career, for me, and for my family. I didn't save any of our winnings. I could have, but because we'd struggled for so long, I don't regret a thing about choosing to live our best lives.