I have an epson GT7000 scanner, an epson film scanner and an epson 600 printer. They're all good and all very compatible, all using epson software. For instance, you tell the scanner what final size you want to print out, and at what resolution, and it scans at the required resolution. The photos are just like real prints and seem to be colour fast. The only minus is that results are best on epson paper. The HP at work seems to cope better with plain paper.
As for cost I don't keep a detailed record. I usually use non-epson cartidges which work as well and are available widely at about half the epson price.