I used think I wanted one, but the price put me off too.  Now I no longer think I could justify it for the type of riding I do.  I guess if I were to get serious about racing, but honestly I feel like I've finally put that bug behind me.  I had a pretty serious decade of racing from the ages of 18-28.  Then I got married, fat, happy and trauma adverse.  I really never even use the heart rate monitor anymore, which is also a good tool if you understand its limitations.  The nice thing about a power meter is it provides consistent accurate feedback.  The heart monitor can be thrown off by all kinds of things that cause our complicated biological engines to run different but still have the same output.  
 
For the Tejas TT loop I use the SWB bent in racing config, along with no wind (it is a loop) and a 1% slope and it produces a number @240 which is about in the ballpark I expected.
 
Take care,
Nelson.
 

RBM Richardson has Power meter wheels and units available to rent for 1 day, 3 days, etc.  Not sure on pricing, but could be fun to rent one and use for everyone in the group to get numbers
 
I plan to do this one day and measure my times at the Plano Crit course for some solo laps, the HCTT course, and a 3 mile flat TT run I can do that has no lights or stop signs
 
No real reason other than having all new numbers to obsess over.
 
DB

Pretty sure they are all 700s