Both microwaves and toaster ovens are good and have their place in the kitchen.
A microwave is better for quickly cooking something or quickly heating something up but a toaster oven is better if you're wanting to bake the food such as bacon, chicken, pot pies, cookies etc.
A microwave cooks food more quickly but a toaster oven cooks the food more evenly.
Toaster ovens do use a lot of electricity but they are not on all the time so they are not that costly to operate.
I use my toaster oven almost daily and at most my electric bill increases by $5.00 per month which is not that bad.
A toaster oven uses on average of 1000 watts to 1,500 watts depending on the size of the toaster oven and the settings.
Toaster ovens do save electricity when compared to using a full size electric oven.
A full sized electric oven can use 3,000 to 5,000 watts of electricity when on and baking food but a toaster oven uses only 1,000 to 1,500 watts of electricity per hour depending on the setting.
If you're just cooking something small then using the toaster oven would be cheaper but if you need to cook something large or more quantities of food then the electric full size oven will be cheaper and more efficient.
Most electric ovens use 50 cents for baking food which is pretty cheap.
A toaster oven may only use 10 cents to 20 cents for cooking food.
The actual cost of using a full size electric oven or toaster oven depends on your electricity rates but the average KWH cost is 10 cents per KWH.
But that can vary from location to location.
Cooking something in a toaster oven for 30 minutes or less may only cost 1 to 2 cents or less.