I second the laser printer for people who only print occasionally. I have a cheap Samsung ML-1710 laser printer. Bought it for under $100. Unfortunately neither Apple nor Foomatic include drivers for it any longer so it's become a doorstop. If anyone knows where to find a working driver from a reputable source I'd love to know.
Edit: Apparently splix driver works for this one.
https://www.openprinting.org/driver/splix
I swear the ML-1710 model did not show up last time I checked the printer list. Maybe I just missed it.
Samsung gives out drivers for download. A simple search found it:
https://driver-samsung.com/samsung-printer-ml-1710-drivers/
I own a ML-1660 for now 7 years and the drivers still work fine for me. Just no duplex printing, which is a shame.
Yes but the drivers they have don't work on current MacOS. Mac OS X (Tiger) v10.4 is the latest.
Interestingly, this is to some degree an Apple problem. Microsoft has no problem supporting printer drivers from Windows 7 (or before) in Windows 10, or Windows XP drivers in Windows 7. It's so very Apple to regularly throw out history.
I was able to get a Ricoh 250SF (all-in-one color laser with fax) for under $200 last year. It is an overbuilt and heavy tank with slight driver unfriendliness but I have no complaints with its superb print quality, ability to scan to a USB drive/Samba share/email, and good support on Win 7/8/10 and OSX.
Brother also has halfway decent Linux drivers, depending on the model. We have one in the office. It's mostly OK, except I can't un-confuse it about letter versus A4, and it won't duplex. But at least it doesn't lock up hard when I send it print jobs, like the Canon does.
The other way to avoid paying through the nose for tiny ink cartridges is to get a printer with refillable ink, i.e. Epson's EcoTank branded models or one of the many third party refillable cartridge solutions. But these always end up drying out and clogging if they're not used frequently enough.