I don't own a printer for this very reason. As of late though I've had to question if this is viable anymore - UPS price gouged me for 2 A4 sheets of black/white paper prints for $6.40.
The horror stories are a bit overblown. I've had good luck with a regular old inkjet printer. Been using a Brother inkjet for years. It was $50 brand new (!!!), prints beautiful photos (use glossy paper), has a built-in scanner and photocopier, and even prints double sided. The last time I bought generic ink it cost me $22 for 3 full sets of cartridges. Aside from having a wonky UI it works flawlessly.
We print out worksheets for the kids almost daily so we need a printer. I bought the cheapest HP laserjet that had an internal paper tray and it's been fine. I'm pretty sure I bought it in 2018 and we're still on the starter toner despite it having the low toner warning light on since 2019.
I got few prints from UPS, black & white long ago. Now I use staples, color one side letter prints are 70 cents or something, black white around 14 cents. Assuming your files are as pdf, on a fat32 usb.