In my experience, we run our cheapest adhesive vinyl when people ask for even
paper labels -- we are yet to find a good, inexpensive
paper solution, and even then how much cheaper does it get than a roll of material that's $70? It's still going to take the same XXX hours of printing/cutting/weeding and the same price per square foot for ink.
There's no cheap way to run
paper labels through a wide format printer. Sub it out to a roll printer.