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# The 12 tools I actually pay for
- URL: https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/the-12-tools-i-actually-pay-for/
- Published: 2026-08-25T07:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-25T07:00:00.000Z
- Description: Every January I cancel everything I did not use. These twelve survived, and here is exactly why.
- Author: Sam Okafor
- Tags: Tools, Money, #Import 2026-09-30 04:45

Every January I go through my bank statement and cancel every subscription I did not use in the previous year. What is left is the list below: twelve tools I pay for with my own money, and exactly why each one survived.

No affiliate links. No sponsors. Nobody asked to be on this list.

## The rule for paying

A tool earns a subscription if it does one of two things: saves me at least an hour a month, or makes something possible that was not possible before. If it only makes something slightly nicer, it goes.

That rule sounds strict. It is. Subscriptions are how creative businesses bleed money quietly, ten dollars at a time, until you realise you are spending three hundred a month on software you open twice.

## Writing and publishing

1. **A newsletter platform with paid memberships built in.** The single most important tool in the business. It holds my list, takes payments and sends the issues. If it disappeared, I would be in trouble. Everything else is replaceable.
2. **A plain-text writing app.** No formatting, no features, just a clean page and a word count. I write every first draft here.
3. **A grammar checker.** I am a decent writer and a terrible proofreader. This one saves me from myself every single week.

💸

Do the audit: open your bank app, search for every recurring payment and ask one question for each: "Would I sign up for this again today?" If the answer is not an immediate yes, cancel it.

## Making things

1. **A design tool in the browser.** For thumbnails, social images and every graphic in this newsletter. The free plan was enough for two years.
2. **A drawing tablet and a drawing app.** A one-time purchase, not a subscription, which I love.
3. **A video editor.** I paid once for the full version and have used it for four years.

![](https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/tools-tablet-1.jpg)

![](https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/tools-headphones-1.jpg)

![](https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/tools-keyboard-1.jpg)

The physical tools: a tablet, good headphones and a keyboard that makes typing feel like a small pleasure.

## Running the business

1. **An invoicing and accounting app.** Sends invoices, chases late payments and makes tax season bearable. Paid for itself in the first month.
2. **A password manager.** Not exciting. Absolutely essential.
3. **Cloud storage with version history.** I have lost work exactly once. Never again.
4. **A scheduling link.** Clients pick a time, and it goes straight into my calendar. It has saved me hundreds of back-and-forth emails.

![Boring tools are the most valuable ones.](https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/tools-cloud-1.jpg)

Boring tools are the most valuable ones.

## Staying sane

1. **A good pair of noise-cancelling headphones.** Not software, but I count them. They turn any café into an office.
2. **A focus app that blocks social media from 9 to 12.** The least glamorous tool on the list, and the one that makes the biggest difference to what I actually get done.

> The best tool is the one that disappears. You forget it is there, and the work just gets easier.  
>  
> **Sam Okafor**

## What did not make the cut

This year I cancelled an AI writing assistant (I wrote better without it), a stock photo subscription (I used it four times), two project management apps (a notebook works better for a team of one) and a fancy note-taking app that I spent more time organising than using.

## Free tools that stayed free

Not everything has to cost money. Several of the tools I rely on most are completely free, and I think they deserve a mention:

- **A plain calendar app**, the one that came with my phone. It does everything I need.
- **A notes app** for shopping lists and quick links. Nothing fancy.
- **A browser-based image compressor** for making photos small enough for the web.
- **A simple timer.** For focus sessions, for the Sunday reset and for stopping calls on time.

### How I test a new tool

When something new looks tempting, I give it a two-week trial with one clear question: *what will I stop doing, or stop paying for, if this works?* If there is no answer, I do not sign up, however good the marketing is. If there is an answer, I cancel the old thing on the same day I pay for the new one, so the list never grows by accident.

### Tools do not make the work

It is worth saying clearly, because the internet makes it easy to forget: none of these tools will make your work good. They remove friction. They save time. But the work still comes from sitting down, every week, and doing it.

## The total

Twelve tools, roughly one hundred and forty dollars a month, most of which is the newsletter platform. That is less than I was spending two years ago on twice as many subscriptions, and the business earns four times as much. Fewer tools, used properly, beat more tools every time.

![The phone got a big clean-up too.](https://riot.ghost-themes.apps.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/tools-phone-1.jpg)

The phone got a big clean-up too.