When I had a self-cleaning oven,
I just cleaned it fairly often, at least every two months. One period when I was enthralled by Barbara Kafka's very good book, Roasting, I cleaned it every week.
Still cheaper to run a cleaning cycle than to buy Easy-Off! (and a lot safer).
However, that was an apartment ago, and this current oven isn't self cleaning. Non-self cleaning electric ovens are not much fun to clean. At all.
I've toyed with the idea of getting a second hand self cleaner, but I'd want to be totally sure the cycle still worked.
My dream vintage electric is a Frigidaire from the late 60s to mid 70s, possibly in Poppy, but decidedly with the Speed Heat element and the Heat Minder element. As I have said elsewhere here, the best cooks I have known on electrics, insisted on Frigidaires.
(Maybe it is the big coils of the elements?)
Lawrence/Maytagbear