G'day Baz. Haven't got a lightmeter myself. My take on them is they're most useful where you're using quite a bit of light from different sources. Multiple flashes/strobes, fashion/glamour type shooting.
What type of shots are you thinking of using it for?
You can go a long way using the in-camera meter and practice. If you're combining flash and ambient it's a little more complicated, but still achievable. You'd be better off for learning to expose manually with manual flash settings too.
Suggest you spend some time reading through
http://strobist.com