Clerics are not expensive, its your willingness to invest big time money to attempt things that are not of your/your group level/skill
If it gets expensiv you arent picky enough in your groupings and/or you are willing to 'pay off' your exp from completing quest with help of serious ammount of wands/scrolls to get completion regardless of obvious lacking in party
I had no problems making money as cleric, i still carry usual stack of 100 heal scrolls, but if those are too expensive you are doing something wrong. Real expenses for me came from tweaking char, buying best possible equipment, thats how i play the game