Using the in-camera light meter is fine; yours just needs an adjustment of the exposure. You can do this by setting the camera's lightmeter to a lower filmspeed than is actually loaded. e.g. you load a 100 asa film, set your camera to 50 asa.
Your pictures - to me - looked a bit under exposed. on negativ film this leads to low contrasts, a lack of vibrance. Slight over exposure almost never is a problem, used to the extrem (+2, +3) it can give nice contrasty effects.
The settings I suggest for your camera will give a +1 correction, always a bit on the overexposed side, should give nicer results, no matter which film.
Try out different films, cheap, expensive, whatever, and continue using those you like.
Take time to take the picture ;)