Ugh, this reminds me of my in-laws. When we were teenagers, the local radio station had this promo going on for years, where if they called you, and you said a particular phrase, they would give you $1,000. If they called and your machine picked up, & you had that message recorded, you would also win.
Well, my hubby recorded that phrase on the home answering machine, and the radio station did call, so b/c of HIS effort, his parents won $1K. This was about 21 years ago, so $1K went a lot farther back then.
His parents have never been good w/money, even though they have had every opportunity to get ahead in life. Poster children for consumerism, those two! Anyhow, what did they do w/the windfall? They went to the travel agent and got a week long vacation to Jamaica out of it. They left my hubby home alone, w/grandma checking in on him and feeding him. My hubby shrugs it off, saying that not having them at home for a week was worth it to him, but I'm still shocked that they never once thought to give him a portion of the money, or maybe set it aside for his college education or something.