My insurance (UHC) only approves OneTouch, but there is an exception for Omnipod users, since the PDM only uses Freestyle: @bpollina, check with them, it is very possible yours does the same.
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@bpollina you might check out the Contour copay card. Generally speaking it brings the strip price to generic cost levels
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@docslotnick sounds like my current meter. Maybe the meter fashions have come full circle?
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I’ve actually gotten locked into rooms before. Once the bathroom lock broke and I was stuck in there for about an hour until my dad got the doorknob off. Same thing happened with my bedroom about three months later.
Now I keep a tube of glucose tablets in my bathroom, just in case… I probably should keep a phone in there as well so that I could call my landlord for help now that I’m no longer living with my parents.
As for meters, I have three. A Contour Next One that I use as my daily meter (sits either on my desk or in my bag), a backup Contour Next USB that’s in my earthquake backpack, and a plain ol’ Contour Next that I keep at work The work meter has come in handy when I forget my regular meter, and once I was leaving straight from work to go to the airport and realized once I got to work I’d forgotten my main meter at home, though I’d packed all my test strips, so I grabbed that one for the trip. These days I use my earthquake backpack as my travel kit (I have compartments inside it, so diabetes supplies and toiletries I just grab and go, which is so nice as they’re pre-packed). That way I don’t forget anything. I just refill each mini-kit when I get home from my trip and it’s ready to go for next time.
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Reading this thread, I’m once again feeling woefully unprepared for life as a diabetic. 
I have only one meter (ReliOn Prime), plus a couple freebie One Touch meters I got from my hospital CDE I never use (and don’t have strips for). I primarily rely on my FreeStyle Libre of late, so my ReliOn is more of my backup meter now…
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Do you keep it charged?
My normal verio is USB, but my backup is battery, with spare batteries.
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I was kind of joking about carrying my bag around the house… That just got serious. I’m packing a bag tonight.
Me, too, @Pianoplayer7008. 
Just because I carry everything doesn’t mean I have anything I need.
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You are way more prepared than I am! 
I sometimes leave the house with glucose tabs in my car and my phone and Libre reader in my pockets (along with license/debit card). That’s it.
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I don’t, but I do have a battery bank in the backpack as well (that I charge about twice a year).
I’ve never had the battery on the Contour USB meters die, though, even when they have sat for months unused. (I do find meters with regular batteries die if sitting for months unused.)
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I’ve left the house like that before, too… but it’s when I’ve packed everything and then accidentally left it by the door. 
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Six meters. All the same type. Contour Next One.
Boxed up all the older stuff and got rid of it.
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I love it!!
It’s true, I don’t comprehend endo’s or doctors who limit the numbers of test strips. If additional testing leads to better control, less overall variability, isn’t that the desired end goal? consider the cost of complications vs cost of test strips, it seems like a no brainer to me!!
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I have one main meter, currently Freestyle Lite, which is together with my Echo pen. I have a backup meter, Contour- most compact meter, always in the same place at home. That’s it. I have a few other meters in a closet, different manufacturers, for which I have no test strips. I discarded my OneTouch meters, which were basically useless, unreliable and a menace to diabetics everywhere!
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Think of it as standing up for what you know you need to take care of your health (rather than pushin back)! It’s your right. 
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I actually liked our One Touch !!!
But I few testing as primarily focused around the test strips. The meter is an after-thought. Whatever strips we currently have is the only meter I have any business keeping around.
I do have a pack-rat mentally which I do battle against. Sometimes I win and sometimes I get sidetracked.
So, once we had moved onto the Contour Next test strips, then it was a matter of fighting the urge to keep all the old equipment that was no longer necessary. Waited for the right moment, boxed it all up and got rid of it.
Then ordered a few more (same) meters (Contour Next One) from Amazon (like $9 each) and have them spread around.
Kitchen
Bedrooms
Backpack
Travel Bag
Car
With the point being
- not to have to either wonder where the meter is
- not having to be moving the meter around continually
- not picking up the wrong meter type and wondering where the “new” meter is
- not being “out and about” and realizing the meter was left in the house
You and @TiaG …
I use two, my PDM and a Freestyle Freedom. I rarely use the Freestyle Freedom; it’s just back up if something goes awry with my PDM. My d-bag is (almost) always with me and our home is sorta open, so a few steps one way or the other and I have a meter, when I need it.
We have a lot of other meters in the house (primarily One Touch and ReliOn); my husband is Type 2 and he’s acquired a stock of meters through sales reps (about six still in the unopened box and a few in use at home and at work). We’ve given several of them away over the years, to people we know who are in need.
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We have one meter. 
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I have 5.
The true2go that I was a big fan of forever, which has been discontinued— but I still have a lot of strips for it… haven’t used it lately
The one touch verio flex that my insurance covers, which I use regularly— I don’t like it’s large size so I usually don’t carry it with me when I leave the house (except for to go to work)
A backup for the verio still in the box
The true metrix that I pay for out of pocket. I really like its small design particularly for on-the-go. I also like having a secondary meter for multiple tests of the same event… eg if I spike significantly and end up testing 6 times of that one high event—- I don’t want 6 high readings messing up my averages and data (I only look at the data from the one-touch)
And my backup true metrix that @docslotnick sent me, because they’re not available to purchase in Alaska or anywhere I could find online.
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We have one. One stupid meter than I am hunting down at 3am because the Dexcom can’t possibly right.
How much smarter is six?!?
How does that work out? That’s the reason Eric only uses his one meter.
Uh, your endo is fired. Can you ask some other doctor to write you an RX for 10 a day? It’s reasonable, 10 a day. He doesn’t need to see anything. He works for you.
Ha! We have that one and are like “dude where is your bag with the meter?” Commence looking. Thankfully we have a small house?
This thread was really enlightening! I’m going to check if we can get the strips covered as an override now - we’ve just been paying more.
Regarding getting locked in bathrooms, removing the hinge pin is actually easy and having a screwdriver and hammer under the sink might be a good bet.
Maybe we will get a bedside meter and I’ll tape it there. Because at 3am I really don’t want to figure out where the thing is!!! I think that the Dexcom has made having the meter in his pocket less of a necessity.
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