Picking punctures up left right and centre, swapped out the standard near slick tyres for maxis X kings 700c 35mm and want to keep them.

Do I do a ghetto tubeless or is there an inner tube solution?

Don’t want to fork out for a full tubeless set up if I can

Depends on your rims doesn’t it? You need the right bead hook/seat to keep the tyre on at low pressures (and high pressure if you want road tubeless)