OP asked:
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Best ammo for practice (cheap and clean) in .38?
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Anything from the big five is going to be good, quality-wise, so that's not a factor (not that you asked). As far as cleanliness goes, it's interesting that the only specific practice ammo recommendations I've seen here are for WWB, which I've consistently found to be dirtier than other comparable loads.
These days, I shoot mostly Blazer aluminum +P from my J-frames because it is the cheapest (still not very cheap at $14.00 a box). No problems so far. I've found it to be surprisingly clean.
In the past, I've used WWB 130 grain (dirty but accurate, WAY too expensive in my area at $18+ per box), Remington UMC 130 grain (pretty clean, decent accuracy, still exorbitant at $17 a box), PMC 132 grain (one of my all-time favorite .38 practice loads. Clean as a whistle, very low recoil, and was inexpensive back when you could get it, which I can't anymore) and Speer Lawman 158 grain +P (wonderful, clean, accurate ammo, used to be $9 -$10 a box, is now $20+ a box here
).
I'd go with Blazer if I were you (unless you reload) simply because of the cost issue. I haven't heard of any crimp jump issues in the lighter guns using the FMJ Blazer aluminum cased ammo, but I have with Blazer's unjacketed lead .38 ammo in the ultra-light J-frames like the 340PD. I guess you're not supposed to put unjacketed rounds through those guns anyway?? but I read someone's post on another forum where he did and was having problems. Seems that it's just not possible to crimp the aluminum case on soft lead tightly enough to withstand the recoil forces in those light guns. But, in the slightly heavier 642,
using FMJ ammo, it shouldn't be a problem at all.