Talk about throwing cash in the trash – a single mother in Galway almost lost out on €258,528 when she unwittingly tossed her winning lottery ticket into the garbage pail with kitchen scraps. Luckily, she retrieved it in the nick of time.

The Irish Mirror reports that the woman, who declined to be named, said that she bought a EuroMillions ticket on impulse while on vacation in Donegal. Weeks later, she saw a newspaper story about the EuroSpar in Laghey that had sold a winning ticket. Realizing it was the same shop where she had bought her ticket, she scrambled to find the slip of paper. But she couldn’t remember where she had put it.

“I searched the house, top to bottom – no ticket,” she told the Mirrior. “I looked in the recycling bin – no ticket. Then I searched the normal bin. It was due to be emptied the next day, so it was very full.”

The determined woman sifted through layers of wet trash until she hit paydirt.

“I went all through the bin to the very bottom, and there it was - covered in onions, olive oil and garlic but still in one piece,” she laughed.

She wrapped the ticket in paper towels, and presented her fragrant prize to the National Lottery office. She plans to use the money to buy a house.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” she told the Mirror. “I can’t believe that I came so close to losing the ticket and now I have the check in my hand,” she said.