Comment by pwg

> What tools or strategies do you use

Linux CLI tools, and cron.

This little bash script is run by cron once a month:

   #!/bin/bash

   DOMAINS="... space separated list of domains here ..."

   for dom in $DOMAINS ; do
     expire=$(whois "$dom" \
                | grep "Registry Expiry Date:" \
                | cut -f 2- -d : \
                | tr -d " ")

     printf "%-20s %-15s\n" "$expire" "$dom" 
   done | sort 

When it finishes its run, cron then sends me an email of the script's output, which is a list of domains and their expire dates, sorted in increasing order.

When the one at the top gets "close enough" to now, I renew it.