If you live near a university the library's geology section or specific geology library may be a realatively cheap source of topo maps. The libaray at my school has all the topo maps for the entire United States and a large format copier. So for the cost of copies you can get full size (albeit black and white) topo maps. If you live in or near a large city you almost certainly have a university or college near you (e.g. University of Houston). You may need to get a library card but even with that added cost, the maps should be cheaper then buying full size topo maps from the USGS.

Hey AROTC, are you here in Houston? I'm hoping to organize another Texas/Houston-area Equipped.com meet-up this spring. There seem to be a lot of forum members here.

-Blast

Get all you want for free

http://libremap.org/data/

Cool, still have to print them out. Not too many people with a 48" plotter at home. If there's a good university nearby, you'll probably just pay the price of a copy.