If shooting digital, you can actually get away with out a meter. I'm not saying a meter doesn't make life easier in some cases, but a good gray card and a digital camera with a histogram can always get you perfect exposure for any lighting layout. With a little experience you'll find that it takes only 2-3 test shots with the gray card to zero in on perfect exposure. If you happen to be shooting a difficult shot with a huge tonal range, then using a white/black/gray card and the histogram can help you zero in the proper exposure that will capture the whole range. You'll also learn a lot about photography by mastering a gray card.
Now with that sermon past, I'll admit that I use the Minolta Flashmeter IV my self and it works very nice. The way I use it, is to get the starting fstop for a lighting layout, and then fine tune with the gray card or more likely the white/black/gray card.
Cheers,
rfs