The lottery has never really appealed to me.

Whenever I was tempted to buy tickets, I took the money and spent it on a sure thing like chocolate.My gambling experience is limited to putting $10 in the penny machine in Atlantic City. If I gain enough to cover parking, I cash out and walk away.Workers everywhere pooled money for more leverage. I was interested but never followed through.However, by Saturday morning I started to feel like I was the only one who wasn't playing.My church friends started to say how much good we could do with the money and that gave me ideas.The final nudge was when I was in the supermarket gabbing with a friend when my husband called and asked me to buy two Powerball tickets.My ice cream was thawing but I got in line and bought my first two lottery tickets. We even stayed up for the drawing.Playing the lottery starts us dreaming of bigger things and makes us take stock of what's important to us.One of our staffers ran around asking relatives and co-workers if she could borrow $500. Their response determined whether they would get on the list if she won. Most were scratched off already.Would you change if you won the lottery? Did you know that nearly 70 percent of lottery winners were broke within seven years?I'd like to think if I won, I'd stay as conservative with my money as I am now. I'd give money to my favorite charities and then figure out what I needed.I'd start with my health.Maybe you can't buy health, but you can buy health care. My biggest fear is that I won't have enough money for health care when I retire.So I'd put a ton of money away for that.Some people go for exotic sports cars. I don't think I'd replace our 2000 Subaru Outback. It only has 184,000 miles on it and keeps us from putting mileage on our newer cars. On Wednesday the door handle froze, but that can be fixed.We need to keep running it to pay back the $1,200 we dropped on the transmission last year.And that tire with a slow leak can be fixed. Heck, if we won the lottery, we could buy a new set of tires.We would not buy a new house. The idea when we moved two years ago was to downsize. We have smaller quarters, but we brought our junk with us. I might buy more plastic totes.My mom used to tell me not to throw good money after bad, so I would not pay for music lessons.I would still shop at yard sales and thrift shops because it's fun and I love saving something from the landfill.I wouldn't buy anything more expensive than Lipton tea bags, but I would splurge on the dark chocolate bars with flavorings like sea salt and chili pepper.Money can't buy time, but it can buy timesavers.Someone could be paid to put away my laundry. I don't mind sorting it, but sometimes the finished product stays in a basket one or two days too long.I would pay for a personal trainer. Someone who would cheer and motivate me. And lose the weight for me since I have not been successful at that.I would look for someone to water my plants in the garden. I love to prune and stake my plants because I can see immediate results. Even pulling weeds is fun once in a while.But when I am watering the garden I can't multitask. I just stand there holding the hose while I could be doing other things. Yes, I would hire someone to drag the hose and water the garden.Tops on the list would be a cleaning person. I have to admit I frequently fall behind. If I had someone to do some deep cleaning, it would be awesome.The only thing is I'd have to clean before that person came. I'd be too embarrassed otherwise.