HP Officejet 6600 best value alternative printer

[mgell]

What would be a better alternative all-in-one printer that doesn't cost me so much in replacing color ink cartridges? 

I turned off the color printing altogether in May of 2017 to try to save money on replacing the color cartridges.  I don't see how they empty so fast when I don't print photos or really print or copy that much, maybe it is used once or twice a month.  

Since then even though I only print in black and greyscale in DRAFT mode the color cartridges STILL "empty"! 

5/3/17 replaced the empty cyan color cartridge and turned off all color printing   ($10.00)

9/3/17 the printer said the magenta and yellow were empty and had to be replaced ($25.00)

(I figured since they were close to empty in May maybe they dried out or something so I replaced them so I could print)

1/12/18 I replaced the empty high-density black ink cartridge  ($35.00)

(ok so now I should be good for a good while. I don't really print or copy all that much in black either.)

Everytime the printer is turned on it does a cleaning and I hear it pew pew pew pew each of the ink cartridges. 

How much ink does it use doing this because even though NO COLOR PRINTING OCCURRED:

4/26/18 It said all the color cartriges were EMPTY and I had to replace them  ($38.00)

and again

10/24/18 I had to replace all the color cartridges AGAIN!   ($38.00)

1/12/19  AGAIN all the color cartriges were "empty"!   ($38.00)

The black HD cartridge from Jan 2018 is now only about half empty.

I print or make a couple copies of text documents maybe 3 or 4 time a month at most IN BLACK ONLY!

Whatever the deal here is it's costing my a good chunk of money each year to NOT use color ink! 

What is a good replacement printer for the HP Officejet 6600 printer scanner copier that only uses color ink when you actually print something in color?  I would like to have the option to print in color but I don't want to pay for ink I am not using, if need be I can just go to black only.   If I can get a printer for under $300 and then only have to buy black ink once a year that will be better.  Thank you for any suggestions!

PS:  The option that is posted in a link to how to override empty color cartridges in previous similar questions about this doesn't work on the HP officejet 6600.  None of the options it says to use exist for this printer on it's menus.