Campbeltown community groups luck out after last member of frugal local family dies

Who says you can’t become a millionaire on an ordinary salary just by living frugally?

A Scots family did just that – amassing £1.4m after saving money that would otherwise have been spent on smoking, drinking and household luxuries.

The family, from the Cambeltown area, came to light after the last surviving daughter died, leaving the entire estate to good causes.

It is reported their wealth was accumulated because the parents and their three unmarried children carefully saved their salaries and never indulged in luxuries.

They lived in a council house and never owned a car.

Their one big purchase came when they purchased their house from the council.

Now community groups in Campbeltown are set to benefit after local solicitor Christian Kane told them they were to get a share of a fortune left by the anonymous family.

The local junior pipe band, the boys brigade and a social club for older people have all been given a share of the cash, as have the Children's Hospice Association Scotland and Kintyre Dialysis Campaign.

Kane said: “This is money that has been accumulating over two generations. The parents were careful, the children were careful and they never married. The cumulative effect was that the money just mounted up.

“The mum and dad both worked, they had three children who never married and never had any children. They were all always very careful and money-conscious; they never owned a motor vehicle, never smoked or drank. They just worked in ordinary jobs, the sort of jobs like administration that most people would think of as unremarkable.”

He added: “Mum and dad were in a council house, which they then purchased, and the children lived with the mum and dad in that house until the last one went into a nursing home.”