Is total chlorine building up in my pool? I read the "setup" thread on the forum related to starting up a cheap Intek or Summer Escapes pool and could not find any mention of super chlorinating (shocking) the pool.

We put up a 1338 gallon Summer Escapes metal frame pool a little over a week ago. There are 4 or 5 neighborhood kids (including our own) that "swim" in the pool every other day. They splash around for about 30 minutes and then get out; then get back in again a few more times. We are in New England and the weather is cooler this year. I did not find this forum until day 3 and I have been reading ever since.
I have been testing the water with AquaCheck yellow test strips. I toss in about 1/2 a cup of bleach every evening and run the filter 7 -9 hours (over night). I have cleaned paper cartridge filter twice. We keep a tub clean water at the foot of the pool ladder to keep as much grass out of the pool as possible. The pool is half under a tree. I cover it completely at night and don't take the cover off until noon. The 1/2 cup of chlorine seems to be keeping everything in check so far. I also put in 1/2 cup of Borax for the first time the other day. The "stabilizer" in the pool tests very low (between zero and "30"if you trust the test strip). I read nothing in the BBB forum about shocking the pool or how long I can go before needing to do such a thing. The free chlorine level seems fine. I was too cheap to order the $80 in Kem-Tek 013 All-in-One Concentrated Chlorinating Granules (22-1/2-Pound) so I have not added any dichlor. I bought the pool for $17 new at Big Lots and could not see spending $80 on chemicals of which I have no understanding.
Do I need to get a test for Total Chlorine to know if it is time to "shock"?
The pool is very popular, however I want to know that the water is safe and healthy. The "free chlorine" tests between "1" and "3". This is my first "real" pool. I planned to take it down over the winter because I didn't know what else to do.