Wacom has been making cheap tablets for ages, I started with a $100 Graphire back around 2000, the specs and name for the low end tablet has changed but you can still get a tablet with a small working area for about US$100. You can get last year’s entry-level tablet for even less; if you have any kind of art friend connections you could probably find one for the cost of shipping.

There has been no lack of cheap non-screen drawing tablets, and I really think that there’s nothing even resembling a whole generation of digital artists who done exist because of the lack of screen tablets. There’s a FUCKTON of pro artists out there who were enabled by a cheap drawing tablet and a pirated copy of (insert art program here).