I gave up on being very meticulous about my chain, because of the gravel and sand I ride on, on rainy days it's dirty instantly and the rollers get full of sand half a mile from home. Cleaning does no good. I experimentally was very meticulous, removed and cleaned the chain every time it got dirty, lubed it often, I must have spent an extra 2 or 3 hours over the life of the chain cleaning and lubing it, and the chain lasted about 1900 miles. When I just ignore the chain for the most part, power wash it when it gets so caked with mud that it will hardly bend anymore, and lube it when it starts to squeak, it lasts 1800 miles.

An extra 100 miles out of a chain isn't worth 2 or 3 hours of my time.

Also, last time I put on a new chain, I started to get skipping, so the cassette is dead. But it works just fine with an old, stretched chain, so I put my best worn chain back on it and rode it for about 1000 miles, then put my next best chain on, and I've ridden that about 800 miles so far. I'm kind of curious to see what will happen if I just leave the same old super-stretched chain on, keep it lubed and see how long it lasts. I figure what the hell, the drivetrain is shot anyway, I can't hurt it any more, and so far it works totally fine.