Making The Internet My Accountability Partner

A while ago, I discussed how I was lusting after a Paper Republic journal cover. I had ultimately decided I would use that journal cover as a reward for reaching a certain step in my debt payoff plan. Specifically, I would have had to pay off one of my smaller student loans and pay down $10k on my car. Naturally, as time passed, my yearning for this journal lessened, and I started to have…

Daily writing promptWhat’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?View all responses As a therapist, I have a few thoughts on this prompt. The first I need to address is that there is a difference between negative thoughts and unhealthy thoughts. Sometimes life is negative, and there’s no getting around it. We all need a realistic balance of being able to acknowledge the undesirable aspects…

I realize I’ve entered the early stages of work-related burnout. I left my last job after 10 months due to this burnout. This time I lasted 3 years. I don’t want to stay stuck in a cycle of: burnout, look for new work, burn out at a new place. The tricky bit is I don’t know how much of this is within my control. At my last job, you could make an argument that I took on too much, so setting…

It is no news to this blog that I love baking. No baked good is as classic as the chocolate chip cookie. I had previously used a couple of different recipes as go-tos, but the feedback I got was always ‘they could be better’. This recipe has completely flipped the script. I have received nothing but incredibly positive feedback. It is also the easiest of the cookie recipes I’ve used, because you…

Daily writing promptDo you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?View all responses My senior quote was one that typically was attributed to Aristotle. (I’m open to being corrected if anyone knows more than me.) The quote was “what messes us up most in life is the image in our head of how it’s supposed to be”. The quote, as I originally found it (yes, on Pinterest), said “What…

The weekend after my last post I went to my local garden store. I immediately noticed the lack of stock. There were a lot of peonies, but not much else. The previous times I had been, once last spring and once in the fall, I remember every inch of the store overflowing with plants. In the spring visit in particular, it wasn’t just flowers; half the store was herbs, fruits, and vegetables. I…

At the wind-down of summer, life started getting super hectic. My mental health plummeted, so fall and winter were spent keeping my head above water. Unfortunately, that meant I neglected my garden. It was January before I realized my plants were dead and probably needed to be removed. Of course, January in New England meant everything was frozen, so it wasn’t until recently that I was able to…

Daily writing promptWhat activities do you lose yourself in?View all responses Here in New England, we are in our false spring. The past few days have been in the high 50s, and we had daylight savings, so it’s brighter longer. The feeling of emerging from the dark, cold winter is intoxicating. It almost invites you to lose yourself in the day-to-day. Washing dishes hits different when it’s the…

My dog’s surgery went really well; he tolerated anaesthesia well and didn’t have to have any teeth pulled. The total came out to $1600. For various reasons, I’m still working on the insurance claim. Thankfully, I have up to 90 days to submit the claim, though I do not intend to take nearly that long. I’m waiting until after I receive a refund (assuming it is approved) to transfer the money back…

Every January there’s this influx of social media posts about making the most of the year and setting year long goals. This year I’m feeling the sting of not participating more intensely than before. I’m sure the reason is that I’ve started consuming a lot more content in the areas of stationery, journaling, and planners which would expose me to this goal oriented and looking ahead type…

This last week, I hit a total of $2k saved for my dog’s surgery. That was the high-end estimate the vet had given us, if he didn’t need any teeth pulled. Considering my dog is 11 and has never had his teeth cleaned, I’m betting there will be some pulled. I would like at least another $500 saved before his surgery in 3 weeks, which I feel very confident about. Over the past three weeks, some of…

When are you at your most happy? It seems like such a simple question and yet immediately I’m asking several clarifying questions. I think there’s an initial instinct to answer that with a previous memory, but the present tense indicates that the answer we should be looking for is something that is current or ongoing in your life. I am once again drawn to that dichotomy of how hopeful it is that…

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…

Around the end of October I realized I was in a months long depressive episode. I started a few structured self-care activities to begin pulling myself out. Naturally, as part of these activities journaling was something that came up again and again. I have been journaling consistently for years, but this was the first time I found prompts to be super helpful. This and the doors that it has…

It has been two weeks since I created my plan to track my spending impulses and dedicate the money I saved for my debt payoff plan. The first week was super boring, I mostly just avoided places that would tempt me to buy nonessentials. The second week I only had one significant temptation, an Animal Crossing Lego set that was being sold on FB Marketplace for $25. According to plan I should send…

I started this blog almost two years ago. I was just beginning my financial journey and felt in some way I could use this blog as my accountability partner (hence the name) to make sure I reached my goals. I have waxed and waned in my efforts, but I’ve always come back. In my last post I discussed my recent depressive episode and how it impacted my screen time. I want to talk now about the…