The key to diabetes is to monitor yourself, do it correctly, and do it, as many times your doctor deems necessary. But, how do you help defray the costs? The best way would be to get a monitor for free, get other free supplies, and get discounts on the strips. It is easy, and should be done by every potential diabetic and confirmed diabetic. How do you find these free diabetic supplies? There are various types of insurances for diabetics: apply for them. There are many online diabetes supply companies: use them. Please speak with your doctor, he may even be able to direct you t one of these sites. They are there to help you and will gladly supply information on the various programs in your area. Insurance companies know that diabetics will develop many problems if they fail to check themselves often. They want to eliminate paying out for medical procedures as they run themselves like a business. Take advantage of that by knowing that they will happily pay you, or discount your monitoring supplies. Just ask them, and in this instance it is best for them to help you. Online companies that deal with exclusively diabetic equipment have so much that they can afford to discount it. They usually will ship it to you free too. They can send it out to you on a constant basis so you will never forget to grab them at the pharmacy. It will just show up on a regular basis. You then need to make sure that you purchase the correct testing strips. You can of course go online to get them cheap. Just remember to use the monitor often, it will add years to your life.