Contrary to common opinion, home test kits for reading soil pH do provide pretty accurate results - far more so than other home soil testing kits....IF you follow the directions properly and use distilled water :-) Given your zone designation, I'm assuming you are in California, which does tend to towards alkaline soil conditions in many areas and also an alkaline water supply.....a double whammy! JaG's advice is valid, however should be tempered with the admonishment that altering the soil pH substantially or permanently may be difficult and heavily influenced as well by soil type. The effects are temporary and will need to be repeated periodically. It may be easier to garden in raised beds with imported soil that has more suitable characteristics. Agricultural sulfur is fully approved (certified by NOP) as an organic application for a variety uses including that of a fungicide, a miticide and as a soil amendment. It is also a very necessary plant nutrient that is sometimes deficient in many soils.

If you're going to proceed without a good soil test (and sadly, the home kits don't really count), you should do your homework. I understand your desire to save some money! What do your neighbors say that their soil always needs? What is the conventional wisdom in your area? Where I live, for instance, the soil tends to be generally pretty good, but somewhat on the acidic side. Conventional wisdom (and my grandmother, and all of the other gardeners in the area) say that adding lime will be necessary where I live. In fact, when I don't do this, I get Blossom End Rot (a sign of calcium deficiency) on my tomatoes and peppers, and when I add some lime, it goes away. Does the conventional wisdom of your area say that the soil is always alkaline, and you'll need to lower the pH? If so, products to help you to do this will be available in your area, certainly at a garden store, and quite likely at the "big box" stores like Home Depot (though I might have a bit of trouble finding that stuff where I live, since we have the opposite problem here). If pH-lowering supplies aren't readily available in the local garden stores, I'd have additional doubts about what your home soil test told you. Adding organic matter is always a good step, even without a soil test. As people have said, lots of good organic matter will bring your soil back towards neutral, regardless of where is started, and it will also add lots of the nutrients your plants need to be happy and healthy. I believe it is possible to garden (and even to garden well) without a soil test, but you need to keep on your toes. People gardened for a good long time without access to soil tests, but the other side of that is that the successful folks knew how to read their soil and their plants to detect deficiencies.

Fertilizer designated as "Azalea and Rhododendron Food" provides nutrients in a form that is available to ericaceous and other acid soil plants but generally is not designed to change soil pH except on a very short term basis. Elemental sulpher, aka "garden sulpher", is probably the safest and most effective soil acidifier, but in a small 3x8' area, don't bother trying to change the pH of the native soil at all. Instead, create a raised bed and fill it with naturally acidic planting media - aged softwood bark is excellent. It doesn't need to be deeper than 8-10" and you can rennew it in the form of mulch yearly.

If you just applied lime, you should wait 3-4 months before doing a soil test. Ridgerunner has written up directions on soil testing and you can find it several posts down in this thread. If you have been applying lime for the past year and a half your pH has probably risen. You don't want it to go too high, definitely not over 7.0. If it's between 6.2 and 6.5 you should be in good shape and stop liming. Start again when it drops below 6.0.