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 stressMy 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.