The first official lottery recorded in the English early modern era dates to Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. In 1566 a lottery designed to raise funds for the “reparation of the havens and strength of the Realm, and towards such other public good works”.

Each ticket holders won a prize such as a silver plate or other valuable goods, the total money raised equally the total value of the prizes. Scrolls posted throughout England advertised the lottery, each scroll bearing sketches of the prizes on offer. The money the government received from the ticket sales was thus a form of interest free loan over the three years that the lottery was conducted (the draw taking place in 1569).

There were also numerous private lotteries, an example being the lottery held by The Virginia Company of London which was used to finance their Jamestown settlement in America. Commencing in 1694, the English State Lottery, occurred annually until its final termination in 1826.

It's my birthday next week but I'm rubbish at arranging gatherings so I've asked my BFF to try and contact people and get something together for it! It's always the best time of year to catch up with people too because usually everyone back from being on their holidays, so hopefully everyone is this year!

I've been dropping pretty heavy hints about this gorgeous pair of gstar jeans I saw online, so hopefully someone picked up on that, otherwise I'll have to go and buy them myself!

Before my birthday last year I dropped loads of hints about Urban Decay make up and no one picked up on it, then I tried again at Christmas time and still nobody picked up on it, so I've been a bit less subtle this year with my jeans! I can't wait, this week feels so long!

Photo: Laughing Squid (Flickr)

I blogged a while back about having loads of stuff lying around that I wanted to sell, well I’ve finally gotten my act together and gotten around to doing it!

I went to one of those trade in stores and sold a couple of old phones (not for much money, but better than nothing), an old digital camera I found at a festival, an R4 card, a couple of memory cards and some old games that I literally never play.

It’s great, gave me a little extra cash to get by on. I’m just worried I’m getting addicted now, I’m looking around at all my stuff to see what I could sell or trade in. You get more value for money if you trade items in rather than just selling, but I'm not letting myself trade for anything, I don't need any more stuff!

Photo: digitpedia (Flickr)

What makes a good first car? Well, if you're on a budget, and lets face it - most of us are, then your first car has got to be cheap and reliable, and if you're anything like me, its got to be pretty too!

Now, when I say cheap, I mean it doesn't cost a years wages to buy, it has a low insurance rating, and its fuel consumption is economical. Some good examples of this include second hand Ford KA's, which have been nicely nicknamed as the 'mini of the 90's', Renault Clio's, Peugeot 106's, and saxo's.

In terms of reliability, a well known brand and model is a good option, as parts are easy to replace, so think about Ford fiestas, VW's and land rovers.

Just because you're buying second hand doesn't mean the car has got be be an old banger either! Unless that's the look you're going for of course. Colour is important, as if the paintwork is scratched, you might have to carry out some DIY maintenance, so don't go for a two-tone purple and grey shiny paint job, as trying to find the same colour will be a nightmare. If you want to stand out, think about yellows and reds, and believe it or not, white cars don't need washing as often as you think!

Head to Adizar jobs for some great tips and information on where to buy your first car. It won't let you down.

(image by FotoSleuth on Flickr)

I've got loads of technical bits and bobs that I just don't use, so I was thinking of taking them all down to one of those buy and sell game and electronics stores you always see on the high street.

I've upgraded my my phone quite a few times over the past few years, so I have loads of back up phones lying around that could be useful to someone else. And I've got loads of spare memory cards from various phones and broken digital cameras, but they'd probably only give me a few quid for them. But still, it's something!

My parents bought me a new iPod touch for my birthday, which I absolutely love and use all the time, so now I don't really use my older 60GB iPod Classic. It feels like a waste having both, so I'll probably sell that too!

I'm on a roll now, I want to find more things to sell!

Photo: 7bikeframesweldedtogether (Flickr)