My friend, if you have the time, learn to refill your cartridges on your own. I own one of them cheap HP 25XX for home use, I simply refuse to buy new cartridges and give in, I instead got a refill kit with 100ml bottles of all colours for ~9$, and now all I need is 15 min of time for refill and the slight risk of creating a mess during the process.
The HP cartridge holds an approx 9ml, so that gives an idea of how long those bottles should last(Also colour is 9/3 ml colours). Once these are done, I can just go ahead and get just a few more bottles which drives the price down further.
I've had no issues in printing apart from the first time I had done it. I obviously would recommend getting one of those brother Ink tank ones, but there's no need to trash an HP if you can figure to do this and keep a backup cheap maintenance printer.
Btw, I still use the stock cartridges that came with the printer, saving on a ton of cash and pain of hunting for cartridges.
P.S: I've tried this on 2 other models too with no issues
15mins here and there, isn't much, but I still paying slightly more for a laser printer and changing the toner cartridge once per year. It takes one minute, and I really dont mind being limited to black/white.
My brother MFC has lasted over 10 years now - no repairs needed. It's so old it only allows WEP wifi connection and my kid loves the beeping noises the fax button makes.
The HP cartridge holds an approx 9ml, so that gives an idea of how long those bottles should last(Also colour is 9/3 ml colours). Once these are done, I can just go ahead and get just a few more bottles which drives the price down further.
I've had no issues in printing apart from the first time I had done it. I obviously would recommend getting one of those brother Ink tank ones, but there's no need to trash an HP if you can figure to do this and keep a backup cheap maintenance printer.
Btw, I still use the stock cartridges that came with the printer, saving on a ton of cash and pain of hunting for cartridges.
P.S: I've tried this on 2 other models too with no issues