If you’re anything like my wife, you love to print stuff off the Internet and save it. I don’t want to tell you how many notebooks she’s managed to fill up with information that she’s going to use “sometime.” Granted, she’s actually used a lot of it, especially in the classroom. I just wish at times that she would realize that printer ink costs something.
Well, since she isn’t going to change her printing habit, I’ve had to adapt and find ways of saving money on printer cartridges. Let me share some of my insights with you.
- Print everything you can in black – Color ink is substantially more expensive than black ink, especially when you consider that they have to put three colors in that cartridge, which means that there is less of each color. So, if you don’t need it in color, don’t print it in color. Go into your “print properties” when you are going to print, and change the color to “black ink only.”
- Buy reconditioned ink cartridges – Reconditioned cartridges are just cartridges that have been cleaned and refilled. As such, they are less costly than new cartridges. Not all reconditioners are equal though. Check the quality of your printing, and how long your cartridge lasts. When you find a good supplier, stick with them.
- Refill your own cartridges. You can buy the ink to refill your own cartridges. It is inserted into the same hole that the factory uses (usually hidden by the label) with a syringe and dull needle. This will give you the greatest savings.
You may find that a combination of these strategies is best for you. Personally, I’ve never had much luck refilling color cartridges myself. So, I refill my black cartridges, and buy reconditioned color ones. Of course, I try and print everything I can with just black ink too.