You can get older mainframe based SMUs at somewhat more reasonable prices, and while they are not frequent, something like a U2722A can go under the radar for most SMU purchasers and go for a bit less (not the same name/model recognition as the Keithleys, for example) while being compact and having good performance.
If you have a bench supply and a load (resistors and a meter or electronic), you can get all the same data, it's just a matter of the software (or graph paper) that actually generates the curve.
Alternatively, you can get or build a relatively simple device that uses a sig gen and a scope to give you a curve tracer, there have been a number of projects described in other sections of the forum, but I think they're available as kits/fully assembled on ebay and others, and there are lots of designs that can be used.