I remember feeling like the color ribbon was so eye-wateringly expensive that we bought *one* and kept it in a zip lock bag except when we wanted a color print. Usually from The Print Shop. I was young (aged 10 - 15), and it probably wasn't really that expensive. My parents were willing to help with equipment, but we had to pay for consumables ourselves. So any ink, floppies, telephone fees for dialing into BBSs were on us, and we were as stingy about them as you'd expect from kids with limited opportunities to earn money.