Can one still buy black and white printers only?

The price of the replacement refill cartridges today came to a ridiculous £33.50 ! This was for my Canon printer that needs colour as well.

Yes Margaret. Try Viking Direct.

I had similar problems, so bought a Samsung laser printer about 10 years ago. So far it's delivered many pages of university work, rough copies of several books, top quality copy for cartoons, plus a multitude of other stuff, all without murmur. I know at some stage it'll need a replacement toner cartridge but I'll cross that bridge (cartridge or replacement printer) when I come to it.

Sounds good rebbonk, I will be looking this up. How many cartridges does it need? I have to put 4 at a time in the printer I have at present.

Many thanks.

Only one cartridge, it's full of carbon.

From memory, the cartridges are quite expensive, but for 'domestic' use they last for ages. When mine 'goes' I'll make a judgement as to replace it or replace the whole thing. - These are aimed at the business market so they hope to gain from a few cartridge sales, but as a 'domestic' user I'm really very pleased. You can also buy 'toner' and replenish your own cartridge, but it can get messy depending on the design.

HOw long roughly do the cartridges last. Can it be up to a year or more?

The cartridges generally don't degrade and they last for X number of copies. They contain a carbon powder that you use up as you print. (The more black on the page the quicker you use it up). A cartridge for mine costs about £20 and lasts easily for 2000 plus pages. (The printer itself cost me about £60 many years ago.) I'll add that I'm still on my first cartridge!

The only downside is that occasionally I need colour, so I've had to become adept at using very light grey print and a set of coloured pencils.

Have a quick read here...
http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-the-Advantages-of-Laser-Printers