[AmityvilleHams]

I think any pet can become expensive in some way(even if it's more about time than money).

As much as people don't expect vet bills for hamsters, they can and often do occur once or twice in their lifetime in the average hamster. For some hamsters there can be quite a bit more in the way of vet bills though.

Food and treats aren't typically the expensive part of care for most pets. Substrate and litter can get expensive and so can cages etc for a lot of "exotic" pets, but there are some really good ways to avoid spending more than necessary while still providing proper care.

I see so many people making the mistake of buying expensive tiny cages for all sorts of pets. We should all be actively researching any pet before we even try to take one(or more where appropriate for the species)home, but unfortunately not everyone is responsible enough to do that. Knowing how much space an individual or pair etc of any species actually needs allows you to make the right long term investment instead of throwing money down the drain on improper housing - and if you can't do so for certain pets such as many snakes(who shouldn't be housed in adult size enclosures right away and need "grow out" enclosures), you can look into appropriate housing that isn't too expensive but still comfortably houses them.

There really is no starter pet of any kind - definitely not hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits just as a few examples! Hamsters technically should be less cost intensive than rabbits(a big reason being size), but both can still become costly especially if you make housing mistakes for example and end up wasting money.