You remember Kodaks theory? Give the camera away and make your money on the film.
This seems to be the same with the inks.
I use a slow Canon BJC-620 Color printer. It was $150.00 new 2 years ago and I have bought 3 others for my children & grand children. Two of them used on eBay for around $75.00 each.
I new that dad would have to buy the inks also and with a 4 cartridge system ( like some $800.00 printers) $38.00 a set would break me up. However, these are sold through the secondary market on eBay for $8.00 a set postage paid for 5 sets or more. You might want to search eBay for your type of inks and maybe you will get lucky. As Don said it is that $1.00 a sheet paper that really makes the difference.

...and that is my 2 bits worth