Harvey Norman's back to school & work sale has quite a few good deals on printers e.g.
- Canon Pixma IP1300 printer for $29 (4800dpi, 11ppm, black or colour printing)
- Konica Minolta LASER printer for $88 (1200x600 dpi, 16ppm, 8MB RAM)
and pretty cheap A4 500 sheet Canon office paper for $3.86 per ream (there is a limit of 5 reams per customer)
One thing to always check is the cost of replacement cartridges
These can cost more than the printer next time you need to fill up.
Buying another printer is not a cheap way around this as many of the new printers have only half full catridges.
So a cheap alternative - often half price or less is to get a 3rd party refill.
But what if they ruin the print head?? Its hard to tell, as you would need one running on originals and one on refillables and see which one carked it first. But assume the 3rd party is inferior. With the cost of ink, if it lasts 3 refills its probably going to be cheaper even if you have to replace the printer.
I bought a Canon 760 two years ago and have always used refillable catridges, with bulk ink costing $125 over the two years vs $1000 plus for the same usage with genuine cartidges. AND its still going well.
I always check with this website to see what refills they sell. If theres no 3rd party refill, then the cheap printer special is not going to be that special
http://www.inkme.com.au/web/printers.php