PH help required

Hello, I used to use ph meters and ph up and down etc etc and never really got on with them.
I have found a new lease in growing since finding these forums and have a question I would like to ask (I have searched the forums but to no avail)
Is using ph meters really necessary, I am growing in westland fertilizer
Westland - and since potting my babies up they have flourished, lovely green growth etc and no signs of any injuries to leaves. I would like to know how to measure the ph of my soil and how to make sure that what I put in as fert is the correct ph.
I haven't fed the babies as the westland compost is said to support plants for anything up to 5 weeks and I am almost ready for turning the lights down to 12/12. I have purchased the bio bixx bio bloom and intend giving them their first hit as soon as I see pistils. This should roughly be 5 weeks after I transplanted my babies into the westland compost.
Hope I haven't rambled on too much
So, how do you all ph for soil growing and what method do you think I should use.

Thanks

I PH my water, but alot of people dont, they sell ph meters that stab into the soil for like 15 bucks at home depot. its not really necisary, but its nice to know your ph is perfect
alot of people dont like using soil with nutrients in it, and add their own instead, but if it works it works

thanks tck, the main reason I stopped phhing was because I fooked up a few times and found out both the ph meters I had been using were not calibrated correctly. Besides that I like organic to be organic and the use of the chemicals put me off.
As I said the plants look really healthy just now, I just popped in whilst lights were off and too a few pics, but not really good as everything is aslepp