I'm an engineer, and I like having data to analyze, so I like to test and track food carefully. That said, strips can get expensive and the frequency and timing of my testing varies depending on the particular "problem" I am working. In the first year post-diagnosis I was working on the over-all glucose levels, so the early morning test was important, but once that settled down I began to work on reducing spikes, and focused more on after-meal tests. Now I'm focused on testing around exercise and the food intake associated with that. Some days I test a lot, because I want to get a good picture of what's happening, other days I test just twice, because I'm sticking to my routine and I know, from earlier testing, that it works.
I helps to be a creature of habit. Once you find a pattern that works, and the blood tests become consistent, you can stick to that and test less.