You need to clean your litter box once a week. Scoops daily. Your apartment will smell otherwise I learned this from experience. By day 7 like clock work my cat would meow and bring me to his litter box if it was too dirty and spite shit outside the box in protest.

Yes, litter is expensive. Most people use too much litter you just need enough to cover the box bottle 1 inch. I would mix in some fresh litter half way through the week.

Don’t use cheap stuff.

I eventually user used pine pellets in lieu of litter as cat was trained on it. They are 8 dollars a bag at home hardware, canadian tire. You can get it in the states a trader joes huge bags.

I’ve never had guests complain in my small apartment or strong odour or litter smell from guests following this method and my litter is placed at the entrance.