Here's what I'm hearing a lot lately:
"Is there a simpler, easier way to do this without paying for another SaaS product?"
"I'm so overwhelmed - all I hear about is tools, tools, tools. We don't talk enough about the problems we're trying to solve."
"I'm currently doing X, but I'm sure there's a better way to do it."
I get it. The noise is deafening. The FOMO is real.
Every week there's a new AI tool that promises to revolutionize your workflow - a new "game-changer" integration that'll save you a gazillion hours a week, that just killed the “game-changer” from last week.
And yet most of us are drowning in subscriptions we half-use, tabs we'll "get back to," and a tech stack that's grown like weeds in a garden we forgot to tend.
Here’s the dirty little secret these influencers and SaaS platforms don’t want you to know:
Not everything needs to be powered by AI or automation.
The best system is the one you actually use.
Most people don't need to invest time or money on a complicated or expensive tool that only solves 1-2 of their problems. Sometimes you just need something simple that does exactly what you need - nothing more, nothing less.
The Moment It Clicked
A couple weeks ago I realized I wasn't sure if I was subscribed to both Claude and ChatGPT, or just one. And if just one... which one?
I've been switching back and forth so much I genuinely lost track. (Yes, I write a newsletter about AI and automation. Yes, I still lose track of my own subscriptions. Go figure.)
My old systems weren't cutting it:
Spreadsheet tracking → Requires manual updates I never make
Calendar reminders for renewals → Helpful to avoid The Subscription Tax but doesn't help me understand total spend
What I really wanted was simple: a visual snapshot of my subscriptions with the ability to play "what if." What does my monthly spend look like if I swap Claude Max for Claude Pro? Do I really need both Notion and Canva?
No existing tool did exactly this without also doing a dozen other things I didn't need.
So I built it myself.
TODAY’S TOOL
💡 A Simple Subscription Tracker (That I Actually Use)
I gave myself 30 minutes to see what I could quickly build in Lovable, dictating prompts via Wispr Flow. 14 minutes later, the first version was pretty spot on.
With some tweaking, it only took 40 minutes total to get exactly what I needed:
Visual overview of all my subscriptions
Monthly costs: Personal vs. Business category, Total
"What if" scenarios (swap Tool X for Tool Y)
Data stored locally - nobody else sees it
I thought of adding budget alerts or a trend line chart, but I’ve learned to keep my builds simple and purpose-built.
These tools make it so easy to build, it’s easy to get carried away and feel like they need to be more.
But the Goldilocks state is what we should really be chasing. Just right.
The tool is free for public use (link below) - it’s not-cloud based so I’ll never see your data.
You can also feed this into a vibe coding app like Lovable to “remix’ it and make it your own.
WHY THIS WORKS
There's a concept I keep coming back to: Minimum Viable System.
We're conditioned to think our systems need to be comprehensive, polished, and scalable. But that's enterprise thinking applied to a one-person operation. You're not building for a team of 50. You're building for you.
The question isn't "What's the best tool?" It's "What's the simplest way to solve my actual problem?"
Sometimes that's a sophisticated automation. Sometimes it's a 40-minute build in Lovable. Sometimes it's a Post-it note on your monitor.
New tools launch daily. Features change weekly. The landscape shifts constantly. So instead of chasing the "right" tool, focus on what problem you're actually trying to solve, what you know how to build today, and start there. "Pretty close" that you actually use beats "perfect" sitting in your bookmarks folder.
💡 5 Questions I Ask Before Adding To My Tech Stack
☐ What specific problem does this solve?
☐ Is the friction from the problem high enough I’d pay to keep it away?
☐ How frequent is this problem? How often would I use the tool in a month?
☐ What's the true cost? (Money + time to learn + maintenance)
☐ Does the tool solve more than one problem, or am I paying for a single fix I could build myself < 1 hour?
If I can't answer these clearly, I don’t add it.
WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
Want to know exactly what’s worth learning - and what isn’t?
I'm hosting a live workshop with AI Snack Club, teaching only the must-know about automations and agents and building both live.
Not a prompt library, not an onslaught of 10 tools. The actual framework for figuring out which level of automation your task needs - and when to stop before you overcomplicate it.
Join 119 (!!) people who have already signed up 🫶🏽
📅 March 10
🧃 Grab your spot now
If you try building something simple this week - or decide not to add a tool you were eyeing - hit reply and tell me about it. I'd love to hear about either one.
Later days 👋🏼
Diana