Lately it seems as if I have had many of you email me with questions regarding ink, and paper conservation. Your main question?
Where do you get your ink? And how much do you spend?
One other hot question is:
How do you conserve paper….but yet still print coupons?
Have you ever noticed that when you buy a printer, you can get the printer AND cartridges for less than the set of cartridges on their own? Printers include smaller versions of the cartridge with half as much ink – when you consider the money you pay for a cartridge in comparison to the ink it holds, you can successfully say that is one expensive liquid. Manufacturers actually make money when you buy the cartridge – in fact, they’re counting on you to continue to buy that ink for years to come.
I will say…….I try not to print everything I see. My feeling is that there is 
always a paper coupon that I can use instead. However….there are cases (such as Clorox) that I NEED to print. So I do! 
I reuse my paper…..stuff it back in, and if my daughter colors a picture I ‘ll re-use that too (sad to say………….cashiers get crayon on the back of my coupons). The excess that I cut off goes in the recycle.
I am actually started refilling my own cartridges…that is, when I “pre-plan” and have them ordered……it can be risky, but for me it’s the way to go. Some of you go the Costco route, others do Office Max or Staples. I also set my printer settings on draft, and black & white – no need to print in color folks, I never have.
With that being said – how do YOU cut down your ink cost?
Have you ever refilled them yourself?
Please share your tips so we can all learn – I know we have some new readers that are curious – all this printing… but how can we still save?!
I just got this email the other day and this post made me think of it….
Think a $4 gallon of gas is expensive? Consider the prices of these other fluids that people buy every day without complaint.
Lipton Iced Tea, 16 oz @ $1.19 = $9.52 per gallon
Diet Snapple, 16 oz @ $1.29 = $10.32 per gallon
Gatorade, 20 oz @ $1.59 = $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray, 16 oz @ $1.25 = $10.00 per gallon
Evian water, 9 oz @ $1.49 = $21.19 per gallon (!)
Wite-Out, 7 oz @ $1.39 = $25.42 per gallon
Brake fluid, 12 oz @ $3.15 = $33.60 per gallon
Scope, 1.5 oz @ $0.99 = $84.48 per gallon
Pepto-Bismol, 4 oz @ $3.85 = $123.20 per gallon
Vicks NyQuil, 6 oz @ $8.35 = $178.13 per gallon
But here’s the kicker:
HP 02 Black Ink Cartridge, 16 ml $18 online = $4,294.58 per gallon.
Yes, that’s right: inkjet printer ink goes for over four thousand dollars a gallon. What’s in there, anyway — gold filings?
So the next time you’re at the pump, be glad your car doesn’t run on water, Scope, Wite-Out,
Wow!
I buy generic ink on amazon, pay around $8 for 10 cartridges (color and ink). I also stop the print if its gonna print an ad :) My hubby is a machinist & they print tons of programs for different parts they make, they used to toss the paper but I have convinced him to bring paper home to me!
What is the name for it? I have HP so do I just search for generic ink for hp?
I posted right below you, my connection is so slow right now. I wish more people would check Amazon. I tell everyone but they don’t check, it’s so economical.
I am on Amazon now but I just dont know what to type in the search bar. I want and NEED to order ink but I want to make sure I know what I am doing which is not always the case esp at night :)
Just type your printer type in and “ink”. Or if you know the name/number of your cartridge.
Yep, like Michelle said; I just type the printer I have + “ink”. It will show you brand name & generic ones :)
I order mine from Amazon. I get a generic cartridge and they send 6 black and 2 of each of the 3 colors for about 12 or 13 bucks. I pay for it with survey points.
It lasts me forever. It is just as good as the ink I would get from the manufacturer. It’s actually better because it’s dirt cheap.
Used to cost me 70 bucks for a set of black & color. NO MORE~ I print all I want now.
Michelle, how do you find generic ink that works with your type of printer? Does it specifically say ‘works with ___________’ on the package?
Just type your printer type in and “ink”. Or if you know the name/number of your cartridge. Lots of different sellers and choices will come up.
I have a Canon MP280 and refill my own cartridges. I didn’t know what to expect so I only ordered a 1oz kit which does three refills. It cost $4 including the shipping, came with everything I needed and had online instructions with pictures (I need to see to be able to do). The ebay store name is ipimaging. They probably have other refill kits available. I was happy with the quality of mine for the price.
Nothing better than a laser jet! $98 shipped with a toner cartridge on eBay. Replacement cartridges cost 20.00 on eBay. Prints 1600 pages. Get my paper free or .50 with rebates every time Staples offers it!
Completely agree – buying a laser printer is one of the best decisions I’ve made. And I get my paper at staples with rebates, too!
I have an older HP laserjet printer. I get 10,000 pages, and pay the same price for the cartridge.
I would reccomend keeping an eye out for your ink cartridge on the clearance isle. My freaper husband just found some ink cartridge for our printer at Walgreens for $2.00 – the best part is…it kicked out a $2.00 RR=FREE….Score…WOOT WOOT! I wound also look into e-bay, you can but systems to refill your own ink.
I use gift cards that I get through coffeemate brew crew (BTW thanks for posting that Sheryl!…love it, super easy to earn gift cards there). Then I take the empty cartridges to staples for recycling and use the ink recycling rewards to purchase freapy ink when I don’t have gift cards. I sometimes use my overage from coupons at wally’s to purchase freapy ink as well
I bought a HP laser jet using my 20% off at Staples and I bought 2 compatable toner cartridges from Amazon for $25. They would have been $140+ at staples for HP .
For the paper I print one coupon then turnover the paper to print another and if I can maybe fit 3 on there :) Any wasted paper my girls use for coloring on. Also I have been buying my paper when Staples has been having their 50c deal after easy rebate, anything to keep the cost down :)
I also buy generics, but I get them from eBay. I’ve never though about buying them from Amazon, but I just looked and its even cheaper than eBay! (12 cartridges for $6 :D)
Awesome Linda! :)
I started refilling myself fairly recently. I’m able to fill up for about a quarter.
I bought a new Kodak printer because the ink is so much cheaper than the other brands, 29.97 at target for black and color combination package.
OMG, I love you ladies. Couldn’t find generic for mine…did order refill kit though. So excited to save money this way!!! Thank you!!!
I never pay for ink anymore! Collect ink cartridges and ask around for family/coworkers to give you theirs as well. Staples will give you $2/cartridge/month with a limit of 10 per month with their rewards program (free). You can print the rewards out and bring them to Staples and buy more ink with them…I always buy ink with my rewards and I have a good stockpile now. Definitely worth scrounging for cartridges!
Have to share about the paper I use to print coupons. I’m a schoolteacher and I file my students work after it is graded (to prevent students copying each others work). By the end of the schoolyear, I end up with a file cabinet filled with math homeworks. These usually get shredded…this past May, it dawned on me that I could bring the paper home and print my coupons on the backside (as long as student’s names were not shown in the coupon)….so now the back of my coupons have math problems….cashiers often want to give me back my coupons after they scan them because they think I need the work on the back…I tell them that it’s just recycled paper…
Most inkjet cartridges come in a high yield version, which print’s about 4x’s more pages for a few more dollars. I get mine on Amazon, they have great prices and fast shipping.
Amazon has 2 sets of ink for $4.49 shipped for one of my printers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LMACZK
I can never get a good deal on HP ink though, the cheapest black I can use is about ~$8-9 for generics. I have used Walgreen’s to refill my black ink a couple times in the past when it was on sale for $5 a refill.
I had to go with the laser jet. I would always get stuck with the kids running the ink dry and needing to print for school right now. This meant I had to hit BB because they are the only ones that carried my Epson ink. So went to the Laserjet about two months ago and haven’t made a dent in it. It is just a b&w HP printer. It was about 100 and no shipping because I bought it local. I have checked the toner price and at BB the toner is about $6 more than a full set of color ink and bw for my inkjet. I just stopped refilling the color ink. I think I might find them on amazon and hide them in case of emergency. Love the paper ideas though. Thanks.
I’m an I.T. Administrator for the company I work for –
First off NEVER purchase a HP or Lexmark printer – The printers are inexpensive, but the ink will kill you. Better yet, never purchase a inkjet printer. Instead purchase something like a Brother HL-2170 laser printer (prints in B&W only) for about $70 at Staples (they are on sale ALL THE TIME!). The laser cartridge that comes with the unit will print about 2,000 pages. Purchase refills from Meritline.com for about $19 shipped and they will print about 4,000 pages.
Invest a little more in a laser printer and pay MUCH LESS on toner in the future!
i always use any junk mail papers that are plain on one side, just ink out or white out your name, works good & if i print only 1 coupon i use the rest for printing 2 coupons
one thing I will add is that when I suspect there is going to be a full page sized ad after the coup prints I only put in a half sheet of paper to avoid wasting all of that ink! I may waste some paper that way but not the expensive ink!