I just had to purchase ink for my home printer and honestly, it would have been cheaper to buy a new printer! Our teacher budgets were cut A LOT this year and we were only able to purchase one color ink cartridge and one black cartridge. Where do you get your ink? Any great deals out there anywhere on it? TIA!
I went on ebay and found a supplier. I saved a lot of $. I switched computers and can't find the info on the store.
I had a perfectly good printer that I got rid of because I don't think ink is worth the high cost. At the time, I donated the printer to Goodwill I lived next door (as in, right next door) to a public library and paid 10 cents a page (later jumped to 20 cents) when I really needed something. Another option I had was to email teh staples guy and go pick it up which was cheaper except for gas. I now live 8 minutes from a public library but still dont have a printer. I am going there tomorrow, as a matter of fact, to print my ticket to the x-factor taping. It will cost me 25 cents and I have to return some library books so it won't be a special trip. In the school year I can use the printers at work, so I just don't want to buy a new printer just yet. I may feel different one day because it would be nice to have the convenience.
Now, this makes me feel a bit differently! I don't know if it would make sense to get the membership just based on that (no kids at the moment), but I will definitely keep this in mind. Thanks for the info!
Ink jet printers are notoriously expensive to operate, especially if you have a model without separate cmyk cartridges. I have a professional quality Epson ink jet that costs about $300 for a set of ink cartridges, but it lasts a long time (I used to have a graphics business) and works out to a per page cost that is just a fraction of the cheaper models. The mid price ink jets are often more economical to operate because of better drivers, more ink colors, or other features. I do most of my printing on a laser. I have a $110 HP laser and spend about $60 (at Costco, or on Amazon) for the toner. It works out to between .05 and .08 per page depending what I print, so including cost of paper, I spend on average less than .07 per page: not too bad. Whoops. Actually, cut this estimate by half. I get about 1000 pages per toner, not 500. I use my color printers very rarely and only when I genuinely want or need it. I just make sure to run a cleaning or test page through once a week to keep it running properly.
One good trick is not to print text at the highest print quality. In fact, I generally use the lowest quality, and with marginal exceptions the result looks just fine.
That's the one thing I don't like about my HP, TeacherGroupie: it has three quality settings and draft mode is so pale that it is not legible. When I'm in the market for a new one, I'll definitely be checking reviews for better print quality choices.
My husband bulk buys our ink online. He buys enough for at least 5 months, sometimes a year. I think he picks different places each time. He says by bulk buying, he saves a significant amount of money over buying less at a local store. I just asked him. He says it cuts the cost by about half.
I agree with that. So much nicer to be able to print at school. Just don't have the color printing ability there.
I have a high volume ink jet at school. Because we are required to do Acc. Math we really aren't limited too much on toner. I remplace it at least once a year. (On a regular day, just through AM I might print 200 pages.) At home I have a HP photosmart. The ink is fairly cheap. I keep it set on draft and it's a clear printing job. It doesn't print a ton of sheets, but for the stuff I print here it's ok.
I will not buy another HP printer when this deskjet goes; I've spent more on ink refills than the printer cost. What really makes me angry is that the printer will not work when a refilled or remanufactured cartridge is put in. I have a little Epson at school that was a $10 add-on when I bought my laptop. It works with any cartridge and it just keeps on printing.
I have been wanting to replace my printer so that I can go with one that has less expensive ink for use at home.
