liveblogging my descent into madness @livebloggingmydescentintomadness - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
liveblogging my descent into madness
@livebloggingmydescentintomadness
Ashley, 38, aroace nonbinary white autistic (she/her) with Chronic Lyme Disease. I post Supernatural (Destiel, Cockles), Good Omens, Malevolent, TMA, The Witcher, and more. I'm a pro-shipper but I rarely post NSFW. I'm a leftist and talk often about social and political issues, mental illness, and abuse. I try to make this a safe space. I am your momdad. I made the Cockles Masterlist.
so i have at least a couple dozen comments/proposed edits on the cockles masterlist, and probably a lot of people wondering why i haven't responded to any of them or updated the list in an entire year. i've also been asked if i have plans to continue with it.
first of all, i assure you that the cockles masterlist is NOT abandoned, and i have no intention of ever abandoning it.
however, 2025 has so far been one long kick in the nuts for me personally, with such events as five figures worth of dental procedures and resulting nerve pain in my jaw that i'd rate as the worst pain of my life (which has thankfully abated almost entirely), a national shortage on a medication i was dependent on and rationing it for nearly a month until i could get my hands on an alternative and then adjusting to that alternative, my phone breaking, my fridge breaking, my air conditioner overflowing and dripping through the ceiling, and my mother set to also need five figures worth of dental procedures that i'll need to hold her hand through, along with the general day-to-day business of being extremely chronically ill, with chronic pain, in a country descending to fascism.
in short, i've been a wreck, and it's taken all my energy and strength just to stay on my feet. my already-bad chronic illnesses have been worse due to all this stress, and i was recently down for a couple weeks with a virus, probably because of all that stress.
i love cockles, and i love the masterlist, and i would love to update it, but it takes a ton of mental energy to update it properly. (not to mention focus, which i sorely lack with my unmedicated adhd.) i fully intend to do that when i'm able, but right now i'm just not able.
no one has been remotely unkind about that, or even pressured me to work on it in the slightest, but i just wanted to put this out there for those who have been wondering or perhaps worrying that it's abandoned. thanks so much for all your support, and your interest in my project. <3
Considering a big purchase? Competitive bargain hunter? Just trying to save money? Here's everything you need to know about buying stuff.
MASTERPOST: Everything You Need To Know About Buying Stuff for Cheap
How to pay for stuff
Buy Now Pay Later Apps: That Old Predatory Lending by a Crappy New Name
Businesses Will Happily Give You HUGE Discounts if You Ask This Magic Question
Dafuq Is a Down Payment? And Why Do You Need One to Buy Stuff?
Ask the Bitches: Should I Get a Loan Even Though I Can Afford To Pay Cash?
Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”
How to pay less for stuff
Why Name Brand Products Are Beneath You: The Honor and Glory of Buying Generic
How To Save Money With Affordable Car Repairs
How to Save Money on Your Beloved Pets
How to Get DIRT CHEAP Pet Medication, Without a Prescription
The Pink Tax, or: How I Learned To Love Smelling Like Bearglove
Blood Money: Menstrual Products for Surviving Your Period While Poor
Understand the Hidden Costs of Travel and Avoid Them Like the Plague
7 Totally Reasonable Ways To Save Money on Cheap Entertainment
How to buy stuff ethically
Ethical Consumption: How to Pollute the Planet and Exploit Labor Slightly Less
Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Consume Ethically AND Frugally Under the Trump Tariffs?”
21 Ideas for Sustainable Swaps That Aren’t Shitty, Expensive, Greenwashed Garbage
Fast Fashion: Why It’s Fucking up the World and How To Avoid It
You Are Above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid
Kara Perez’s Debut Book “Green Money”: How To Use Your Money To Save the Planet
Wallet Activism: Using Your Money for Good with Author Tanja Hester
How Can I Justify This Deeply Unethical Purchase?
How to buy stuff secondhand
Almost Everything Can Be Purchased Secondhand
Our 5 Best Secrets for Secondhand Shopping Like a Frugal Warrior
The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There
Your Library Lets You Stream Audiobooks and eBooks FOR FREEEEEEE!
How to buy big ticket items
Bullshit Reasons Not to Buy a House: Refuted
Season 2, Episode 2: “I’m Not Ready to Buy a House—But How Do I *Get Ready* to Get Ready?”
How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke
Our (Ridiculously Simple) Method for Choosing the Right Healthcare Plan For You
Buying a Car with the Bitches, Part 1: How to Choose Your Car
Buying a Car with the Bitches, Part 2: How to Pay for Your Car
The Only Advice You’ll Ever Need for a Cheap-Ass Wedding
You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry… Just Like Coco Chanel
How To Pay for College Without Selling Your Soul to the Devil
Splurging on Kids: When It Works, and When It Doesn’t
How to buy gifts
The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum
How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-giving Expectations?
In Defense of Shameless Regifting
Traditional Wedding Gifts Can Burn in Hell Where They Belong
Other People’s Weddings Don’t Have to Make You Broke
How to buy food
To Hell and Back for Cheap Groceries: The Epic Investigation (and Shocking Results) of My Grocery Store Price Comparison Quest
How to Shop for Groceries like a Boss
Cosmic Truths of Cheap Grocery Shopping: 12 Universal Rules to Save Money on Food, No Matter What You Buy or Where You Shop
The Ultimate Showdown: Cheese Crackers, Ranked
If You Can’t Afford to Tip 20%, You Can’t Afford To Dine Out
We Ranked Chocolate Sandwich Cookies by Taste and Price So You Don’t Have To
Confessions of a Thanksgiving Lunatic: Why I Spend $500 Hosting Every Year
How to avoid buying stuff
How to Avoid Lifestyle Inflation … and When to Embrace It
The Magically Frugal Power of Patience
Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool
Status Symbols Are Pointless and Dumb
Here’s What to Do With Those Credit Card Pre-approval Offers You Get in the Mail
Your Yearly Free Medical Care Checklist
How to COMPLETELY Insulate Yourself From Advertisements
6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending
The Subscription Box Craze and the Mindlessness of Wasteful Spending
Everything I Know About Minimalism I Learned from the Zombie Apocalypse
That’s all for now, bitchlings! We’ll periodically update this list as we post new content. In the meantime, if you’d like to support our mission of [checks notes] scathing reportage and dank memes, donate to Bitches Get Riches on Patreon or PayPal with the buttons below!
11.7" x 16½" fine art print on 250 g/m² high quality matte paper, in a signed and numbered limited edition of 25 for $40, and a hand embellished option for $60.
8.3" x 11.7" fine art print on 210 g/m² high quality photo paper, in a signed open edition for $25.
if you want to experience life more deeply you have to find more beauty. stop training yourself to dismiss, to mock, to assume the worst all the time — when you do this you build walls between yourself and the world. and after a while you stop feeling the warmth of it entirely.
beauty requires openness. it asks you to let things reach you, to soften enough to be moved. it’s not naive to see beauty everywhere—it’s a skill, a form of intelligence, a kind of quiet bravery. because it is so much easier to critique than to create, to detach than to engage, to dismiss than to love.
let yourself be affected. let yourself find things beautiful and let that be enough. life is not asking you to be cool, sitting on the sidelines and nitpicking everything. it’s asking you to see life and experience it fully.
