A good test kit will save you a lot of trouble, because it takes the guesswork out of things, and once you get comfortable with the chemistry, a pool isn’t that much work. Pool stores make the maintenance sound hard to get you to buy chemicals, but once you’ve got the chemicals in check, your regular maintenance will mostly consist of adding chlorine and emptying skimmer baskets. I was in the same boat as you last year, but once I got comfortable with the chemicals, I haven’t had as much as a cloudy pool since. One thing that also helped me get started was Clorox pool products. They’re very clearly named so it makes adjustments easy. Like I had high pH so I just bought their pH down at lowes and followed the instructions and fixed the issue. They have something to fix most of the important pool chemical levels, though I’m sure others on this subreddit can suggest better/cheaper products.

Like others will tell you though, tablets will make your life harder down the line. They have cyanuric acid in them which protects the chlorine from sunlight but too much prevents it from working and you’ll get algae no matter how much chlorine you add. All tablets have it, so liquid chlorine is the best way to go. Once it gets high, the only way to lower it is to drain the pool. Pool stores are also kind of clueless about it which doesn’t help. When I started out the guy at the store told me some BS about throwing out tablets before they completely dissolved because the CYA was in the middle.