diet juggling 3 cats

How do you guys manage multiple cats and their requirements?  I have 3 cats:

1) Sephy - indoor/outdoor  somewhat overweight. I worry that if I don't leave food out all day Sephy will go elsewhere for food and not come back (this happened with Merlin who has been gone for 3 months now).

2) Belle - mostly indoor, overweight and needs to lose weight due to bad hips. has developed a habit of eating a couple bites every couple of hours. 

3) Maggie - indoor, incredibly tiny - 6 months but only 3 lbs.  being so tiny needs to eat whenever she is hungry

 How do I balance all 3 cats' needs without spending a fortune on those chip reader food bowls?  What strategies do you guys use? TIA.

Transition your cats to feed times. Free feeding is how you end up with fat cats. I don't really know what to say about your indoor/outdoor cat, but you can't leave food out just in hopes she wont find food at your neighbors house. Ideally they should all eat 3 times a day, but you could make 2 times a day work, some people feed more than 3. Make sure you're not over feeding. Work out how many calories each cat should be eating per day and figure out how many calories are in your cats food to split that between meals. Throw away the kibble. It's loaded with carbs, which make cats fat, transition to all wet food and you shouldn't have any issues.