I like my Cricut Expression a lot. I understand about the cost of the cartridges.. But I have been getting cartridges from a website called Cricut Machine.com.. They have a lot of sales on the cartridges, they are just now adding the new ones to the bunch but many of them aren't more than $40 a piece. And they have them on sale a lot. I just purchased 2 cartridges for less than $30.00..