In my area, Kroger, CVS, and Target all have a house brand meter that has very inexpensive strips and seems to be accurate. The meter is silver/white and the strips are black. While it seems identical at the different stores, I found out that the strips have different notches on the end, so a Kroger meter won't take CVS strips.

Either way, the meter is about $10 and 25 strips is around $7, 50 is $12, 100, is $20. Very afforadable.