I buy my own. When I was first diagnosed, I asked my GP, and he did offer to prescribe me some, but I think that the quantity was ridiculously small 10 strips a month or something, so I politely declined.
I have a good job, but I do find the cost of testing to be a pain. If I tested as much as I'd like to, it'd cost me well over a thousand pounds per year.
I'm switching meters from an Accuchek Mobile to a Contour USB, because I can get the strips for the latter when I'm in the US, at about half the price of the UK ones.