I have seen meters being sold at a lot of grocery store. Quite a change from the days when a lot of people didn't mention the word diabetes.

I wonder how expensive they are?

I assume they may be in the ballpark price range of blood pressure measuring units, which I think start at around $40 or so.

Yes I saw one at the local grocery store the other day that was $55. Not too expensive considering the usefulness of it I guess.

And yes, it is great to see more awareness and attention to this disease now because more people will benefit from knowing more about diabetes.

I've seen people use the meters at work, but I don't remember what happens to the needles.

Are they just cleaned and put away to be reused, or are they disposable?

I just got a new One touch simple, that long one in color and a Freestyle lite. Bith were free. If you get the magazines or visit online, you can follow links to get free meters.

The one touch simple is cold intolerant, so it ahs to stay warm, room temperature. however the freestyle lite is pretty good and heat and cold tolerant and accurate.

Both are having alimited time free offer at their websites........

You can find a lot of meters that are free and most diabetics can get their hands on them with little hassle.

The real problem is when you have to buy the strips to use in the machine. I just saw a machine being given away at Walgreens for free but the strips are sold for $110.00 a bottle!

Check with your health insurer -- if you have one -- and see what strips they will support your getting. If you don't have any help buying strips, keep looking to find the least expensive strips and that meter might also be free. The back of many Diabetes magazines sometime have good cost comparisons where you might be able to get the meter and strips at the best price.

If you are friendly with your doctor, you might mention that you're looking for a new meter and you are having trouble affording it. He might have free strips to give you, or even a free meter around too. Or he could have a patient who just got a new meter and he knows has old bottles of strips to give away. When I got my last meter, it was a new company and I still had some old strips from my old meter left. I gave both to my doctor to give to anyone who needed them.

Remember, the meter might be cheap or free, but they get you with the price of those darn strips!

its true they get you on the cost of teh strips.......
however.. if you ahve a variety of machine sthat you can use, then the options are well open to you as far as whats on sale/.
Walgreens and CVS often have sales on strips, you can get coupons for strips if you glean the web and sign up for newsletters.