My Mortgage Free Mountain - A 7 year expedition to climb to the top

craftingmad

Sadly my 19 year old niece lost her fight for life yesterday evening. We are broken. 
Life is so cruel and it shows just how precious life really is. Tomorrow is never guaranteed whatever age you are. 
Losing my father in law was hard enough but at least he got to live a good and long life but we are struggling to come to terms with her loss as it seems so senseless. 
My husband is gunning for whoever caused the crash but currently I just feel numb. She was only 4 months younger than our own daughter (my niece would have been 20 tomorrow) and I cannot help but think what if. 
We have no choice but to get through this together as a family but at the moment I am struggling to live each minute yet alone each hour and day.
For now being mortgage free is far from being top of my agenda.    

craftingmad

badmemory said:

I think you wanting to know they are safe is a totally normal reaction to the situation.  At least you aren't trying to keep them locked in.

Thank you.
I think at the moment if I could lock them in with me I would. 
All I want is to have both my babies home knowing they are safe x

Baileys_Babe

I'm sorry to hear about your niece, I can not imagine how difficult it will be for your whole family to come to terms with her passing 🤗

~FlowerPot~

Oh my goodness Crafting, I cant imagine what you and your family are going through.

Of course you want to keep your family close by and safe. I am so sorry you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

Take care, family are your number one priority, losing mortgage would be lovely but is not by any means the most important thing

Much Love

Flowers x

Jessy103

I'm so sorry to hear about your niece, crafting. Lots of love to you and the family in this difficult time x

Cornish_mum

I am so sorry to hear about your niece, how devastating for you all. Thinking of you CM

craftingmad

Thank you all so much for your kind words. They really do mean so much.
And sorry for my absence. I have only now managed to get my head into a slightly better place. There have been some really dark days and I think the realisation has set it that the last couple of months were actually real rather than just a bad nightmare. 

Between us we have made the decision that we need to continue and give our children (whom we are so grateful to have) the best that we possibly can and so in that vain we will be continuing our mortgage free journey from today.

It won't be quite as quick as we were hoping for as we are going to be paying my brother in laws rent for what it looks like around 3 months so that will be an additional £725 we have to put towards that rather than our MF journey but it seems the least we can do at the moment and I'm hoping that when they get things sorted and they have come to terms with the tragic events that we may get some, if not all, that money back.

We have also had to give my mother in law £5000 for my father in laws car as my other brother in law does not want to get involved in selling it so that has fallen down to us. The car is worth more so hopefully we will get that back too and the rest it makes will then be forwarded to her but at the minute the problem we have is that it is in Wales and we are here on the Broads. We have also had to p ay for insurance for it and will incur the costs of having to travel up there to bring it back to us. 

We are not letting these put us off though. Our MF journey starts again now (although our figures for this month are going to be dire).

I'll be back later with my daily list x 

craftingmad

So my mortgage free quest goes on.

Here's my (not so) little list for today:-

1. Play on Mistplay - 2 points so far. Hoping to get 50 today  
2. Find dog bowl I had previously bought to save buying a new one for the one which smashed - DONE and no success. I've hunted everywhere but cannot find it so wil, have to buy a new one today  
3. Make and post off three orders - all three now made. Just need to package up and post off. Will post on my way to work to save on petrol  
4. Transfer £5 from FB marketplace sale of some shelves I bought ages ago and never used - DONE not much but every little counts  
5. Meal plan for rest of week - DONE no shopping required but treating us to a take away on Saturday  
6. List two things on FB marketplace - DONE brand new Olay facecreams and two advent calendars I made Two advent calendars have sold for £30 so will post those off tomorrow and then transfer that money at the end of the month   
7. Return library books to save overdue fees
8. Complete some of an online course included in a membership which runs out at end of month
9. Comment om In Search of Posts on Facebook to hopefully get some more orders - commented on two. Hoping to find more as the day goes on   
10. Advertise my business in 3 FB groups to improve my visibility and hopefully get some orders
11. Schedule posts on FB to help get my visibility back
12. Raise claims with Royal Mail for two missing parcels
13. Check and see if Amazon refunds have been received - DONE £15.14 refunded from dog food put back on subscription when I cancelled it. Got to keep the food so added this amount into OP savings account Also refunded £58 for vinyl which was also put back on auto subscribe. 
14. Create a new item to sell
15. Upload a new cardmaking sheet on Craftsuprint
16. Check freepostcode lottery, win a dinner and freeemoji draws 
17. Complete surveys on Prime Opinions 
18. Complete surveys on Inbox Pounds
19. Complete surveys on Panelbase
20. Get some swagbucks as offered a 50 point birthday bonus if I redeem a gift card within 30 days 
21. Declutter 10 items from the house - DONE bin bag full of rubbish removed from my craft room and bathroom  
22. Turn off lights left on by family and unplug something to save electric - DONE all lights turned off and no heating on until tonight  
23. Action one idea on my MF list
24. Chip shop shift - DONE 5.25 hours pay to be added at the end of the month  

Baileys_Babe

Good to see you back.

Be careful not to burn yourself out with such a large list🤗

craftingmad

Baileys_Babe said:

Good to see you back.

Be careful not to burn yourself out with such a large list🤗

Thank you.
The way today has started I don't think I will complete even half of it but I must remember to be kind to myself so thank you x