I agree with John on not worth the time and effort. If cost is an issue, look for pattern ink cartridges. I'm in the UK and use cartex. I've never had any trouble with them.

I wouldn't worry too much anyway if using pattern cartridges did (not that I think they do) shorten the life of a printer a bit. The whole business is a bit of a racket. Do your sums and you may find that it it takes few cartridge changes on pattern vs refill prices to have saved enough to buy a new printer!

As for the colour matching, depending on your usage it might not matter, or you might not notice a difference (as I don't). I'm guessing but far as I understand it most printer software allows for colour profiles in which case, consistancy in colour between cartridges could be more important than exact matches to the original manufacturers. The only printer I had a colour problem on was an Epson stylus 880 and that was as bad (dark in some way) with a genuine Epson as it was with any pattern one I tried.