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I won the Premium Bonds this month, for the second time in three months. Alas it wasn't the £1 million top prize, but a modest £50 in each case.

For those not in the know, Premium Bonds are a UK state savings scheme. You buy bonds of £1 each and instead of the government paying interest equally across all bonds, the interest is lumpy and bonds are drawn monthly like lottery tickets to determine who wins.

The bonds retain their original value and can be sold back at any time. So unlike the lottery, you get your original money back even if you don't win.

Prize range from £50 to £1 million with a chance of 'winning' of around one in twenty-two thousand for a single bond in a single month. I hold £2,000 of bonds so I have a one in eleven chance of winning in any given month.

For my first 15 months I didn't win anything, but I am now back ahead of the curve with these recent wins.

All prizes are tax-free, and the overall interest rate is reduced to reflect this. On average Premium Bonds pay slightly below market rate, but since they offer the chance to win £1 million tax-free for a £1 investment, they are very attractive.

The risk the investor takes is that they might win nothing, and would effectively be holding money on deposit at zero interest rate. In these low inflation times, that is only a small cost.

The really clever thing about Premium Bonds is that they add some excitement to boring old bank interest. People consider a win as exactly that, rather than as simply the interest they have earned on a deposit, which is what it really is.

Premium Bonds make interest interesting, and that is no small achievement.

And after the wins in August and October I am fully confident that it will happen again in December and I will land some fat stacks of cash :-)