Making the Internet My Accountability Partner

Over the past couple of weeks, it’s gotten easier to not feel the urge to want things. The one thing I absolutely desire and had to talk myself out of was a set of Animal Crossing themed Switch controllers that were $20 on FB Marketplace. On December 4 I finally earned my first cafe journaling day. The place I went to had multiple displays of local crafts and artisan goods. I walked in an immediately thought I am likely to buy something nice but unnecessary here. However, I was able to reframe it as this is part of the cute environment in which I get to journal and enjoy the tea and pastry of a local business. That probably saved me so much temptation. Some of the specific things I did find myself thinking about, but not actually desiring, were a notebook and a pack of stickers. Together, they would have cost me about $25. I did break a low buy intention of mine yesterday. I bought a two-pack of body wash for $15 simply because it had an IP I liked.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been able to put $450 towards the surgery savings. I’m hoping to put the same amount towards savings in the next two weeks. If I can do that I will have $1700 of the $2500 I will need by January 15. I am already feeling daunted by that task, but I have a few back up options. Either I can pull whatever remaining money needed from my emergency savings and pay off the procedure with my debit card or I can put the procedure on my credit card use up the savings I have and pay the remaining balance off over the next month. If I need to take either of those, which I choose will ultimately depend on how short I fall. If it’s only a couple hundred I can manage on the credit card if its closer to $500 I’ll feel most comfortable pulling from my emergency savings and building it back up over time.

Recently, I was prompted to make a 2026 vision board. I remember back in 2024 I made seasonal vision boards that I did not find to be super useful. The vision board prompt came as part of a December self-care guide, so I used that to direct my new intentions for this vision board. Prior to making this I would have never considered that a collection of quotes could be a vision board, but it feels so right for where I am right now and where I want to be going. I am so excited to see how this guides my next year.

In case anyone is curious, I pulled all the images from Pinterest. The template is Creative Brown Vision Board Photo Collage by Marissa Abao’s Images on Canva.