With all the great printable coupons which have been available recently, I thought it would be great to post this question that Andrea recently emailed and asked:
I am new to printing internet coupons and it has taken a toll on
my printer cartridges. Where have you found/heard to be the cheapest
place to buy/refill them? -Andrea
my printer cartridges. Where have you found/heard to be the cheapest
place to buy/refill them? -Andrea
I'd love to hear your best money-saving suggestions and ideas for printing coupons (and everything else!) inexpensively.
For a little less than $25 we had both cartridges, color and b/w refilled. So far it hasn’t worked, the black refuses to print correctly and we’ve taken it back once already and plan to take it back again in the morning. But, I have to say the staff at the store here in Valdosta, Ga are some of the most nicest and helpful folks I’ve ever met! Hopefully the problem will be remedied tomorrow and I can continue to be a coupon printing fool! LOL!!!
I have an Epson RX380 and have been printing on the same set of cartridges for over a year.. and I do a LOT of high graphics printing (Photos n such at 600-1200 DPI). My secret? I purchased a continuous ink system on ebay for around $60 bucks. When you run out, you just add 4 more ounces of inks which are available for $20 a set. I have yet to refill mine! The print quality? I cannot tell the difference and have printed many pictures of the grand-babies to frame and they have not lost their color or faded.
My husband orders from http://www.inkjetsuperstore.com/ and we pay less than $9 for our cartridges. Also, we have had this HP Officejet all-in-one for 5 years & have had no problems using the less expensive ink.
houseofinks.com has great deals on ink for printers. We got our ink cartridges for about 7 dollars a piece.
When you do the math, and figure out the cost per page (cpp in printer lingo), you will find the only way to go is with a laser printer. AND this week, OfficeMax has a Samsung on sale for only $60! (check it out here: http://officemax.com/catalog/category.jsp?catId=cat1430036 ). The cartridges are more expensive, but you only have to buy them what, once every year or two, as opposed to every month or two for ink carts. I keep an ink printer for printing things like business cards, but most of my printing, and most especially my coupon printing, is done on my laser.
I use a Lexmark printer and up until the past 2 weeks have been buying new cartridges each time from Office Depot. I finally decided we had to do something different since I was going thru ink like there was no tomorrow! So, we tried at Walgreen’s but something about our cartridges couldn’t be filled because their equipment needed upgrading or something. Anyway, we discovered Cartridge World here in town and went there. For a little less than $25 we had both cartridges, color and b/w refilled. So far it hasn’t worked, the black refuses to print correctly and we’ve taken it back once already and plan to take it back again in the morning. But, I have to say the staff at the store here in Valdosta, Ga are some of the most nicest and helpful folks I’ve ever met! Hopefully the problem will be remedied tomorrow and I can continue to be a coupon printing fool! LOL!!!
I second the laser printer. We got ours for $59 and saved that much in ink in the first 2 months.
I get mine refilled at walgreens for $10, however printing coupons has become a problem as our local walmart and several other retailers don’t accept them. I called walmart about this issue and it turns out the store’s manager has the reins on this she has choosen for her store not to accept internet printed coupons. Our local manager isn’t shall we say customer friendly.
Just a tip make sure your walmart or other store accepts internet coupons because some stores are now choosing not to do this.
I got a new printer this year made by Kodak-the ink is ALREADY cheap-only $10 for B&W, and $15.00 for Color. My last one was ruined by…guess what??? Refilled cartridges from Walgreen’s. It was a nice Lexmark, was sad to see it go. But, I HIGHLY recommend this new Kodak ESP all-in-one, and you can’t beat the price for the ink.
I’ve had good luck with toner from Monoprice. Cheap — cables are a great bargain there, too.
Get a laser printer that prints 7000 pages before needing to be refilled.
Sam’s Club carries refill laser cartridges for about $25 less EACH than we could find them anywhere else.
I have a black and white laser printer that has lasted me several years. I usually only have to replace the cartridge once a year, and I print schoolwork every day for my children.
Just wanted to add that although refilling is cheaper in the short term, I would be careful – I got our ink cartridges refilled at Walgreens and our printer hasn’t printed properly since. I took the refilled ones back to Walgreens and told them they weren’t working properly – they checked them and said they appeared to be working fine. No money back, no replacement. I had to go buy new cartridges and even after installing the brand-name refills our printer just hasn’t printed well at all since I tried the Walgreens refills.
We have an HP photo-printer, so maybe it works well for other printers – but definitely not for ours. Just a heads up!
You need a laser printer, inkjets are WAY too expensive. I’d recommend an HP laserjet 5 or 6, 6p, 6MP. Buy one on eBay. They can be had for $50 or less. Then toners can be purchased on ebay for $20-30 each. I will literally go years on a single toner cartridge.
Plus laserjet will print a more crisp image and you’ll have less trouble getting the barcodes to scan than with ink jets.
My husband works for a toner and copier sales company. We get a good deal. Check them out Tonersales.com. Tell them Bill’s wife sent you. He works on commision and can ship.
[email protected]
I got the best inkjet printer I’ve ever had this past Christmas (Canon MP700) and that was before I discovered & printing coupons so I really lucked out. The inkjet refills were extremely cheap at Meritline.com, which I would recommend. The only downside is that the replacement cartridges won’t show the ink levels but I keep track of when I change them out & check them from time to time. I also *only* print the coupon, not the recipe or whatever else might print on that page. Always set your printer settings to “Print Preview” so you can see beforehand what is about to print and whether or not you need to cancel the print job at any given point.
Yes,while ink costs are something to consider, I found that I was struggling with the amount of paper I was consuming on a daily basis! Sooooo, I had my husband bring home scratch paper from the recycle bins in the copy room at his office! Works like a charm for all of those prints I was doing. Especially when you are printing from a site that is doing one coupon per page… it’s a great way to cut costs, and help cut waste as well 🙂
I worked for an insurance company and the office had a laser printer and inkjet printers we were told to use the laser printer whenever possible. The laser printer cartridge did not have to be replaced for almost 16 months and we printed A LOT of papers being in the car/house insurance busines.
Soooo I would recommend saving up for a laser printer and in the long run you’d be saving a ton of $$$ 🙂
Years ago a rep from HP suggested a Laserjet printer to save on ink when printing out so many mailing labels was putting me in a pinch for ink.. I have the same one I bought about 10+ years ago.. works great. I did buy a new one recently, because Staples had a deal too good to pass up. The toners cost a bit up front.. but you can print thousands of pages. when it starts streaking.. pull it out and shake it up.. the last toner I had I used for nearly a year before it ran out.
I put my printer on the faster and low setting (fast draft) and when the ink get low, I moved it up to slow and more ink. I also print on the back of paper that is no longer needed. My mom brings some home from work and that helps out a lot.
Also when printing from the single page of a product and you are allowed to print 2, I print on one side and then turn the paper over and around and print on the back.
Helps a lot. Also cheaper printers use a lot of ink, like the $40 Lenmark. Nicer printers do better at ink.
The best suggestion I can make is to cancel the print just after the coupon is printed. We don’t need the ad that prints out afterward and it saves ink!
I buy remanufactured ink at http://www.supermediastore.com. My Epson cartridges are kinda pricey so I can get a great deal here. But, sometimes the printer likes to say it can’t identify the cartridges (like right now!!!) so I have to play with them sometimes to get them to work. that is the only hassle. it’s worth it.
Overstock usually has some good buys, don’t use any refills if you value your printer, have been told by two good techie friends, that most repairs call are because of them
I buy mine from Ebay. The cartridges I use cost around $40 a piece at retail stores. I get them for a little under $10 a piece on ebay, that’s including shipping!
I bought an inkjet printer that had been modified with a big tank of ink on the outside. It feeds into the cartridges. I can do 5000 pages before it needs to be refilled, & it only costs $15 to refill.
We use a laser jet for our black and white coupons. We have found that if we print our Target ones in color, they scan better. We use our HP 4-in-1 for that.
We tried Cartridge World but it printed so awful. We brought it back and tried another time with them, and it was still bad. So we are very leary of them. But, maybe we’ll have to try Costco.
I got some at inkgrabber.com…. I got 20 cartridges for $45! A mix of colour and black, and they have actually worked well. I was very sceptical, but so far, it’s been good (I’ve used 8 so far)
I have a few places that I buy compatible ink online at depending on who has the best deal going at the time (I want to pay less then $5 per cartridge). Also for those coupons that print out at the top of the page I turn it over and print another at the top. Another thing I do is once my coupon has printed if I see there is an advertisement printing I hit cancel. HTH
We have a brand new c540n Lexmark laser printer for less than a month. Guess what? The inks are low! They sell the printer with a small amount of ink so that you have to purchase new cartridges relatively soon. They cost a ton!
Our library computers are not set up to print coupons.
Wow…so thankful you asked this. The hubs has been *heavily* hinting that we should get a lazer printer, so it looks like all the other husbands agree! Thanks for the tips!! 🙂
We bought a laser jet printer (Samsung ML-2510) this past year and buy toner refill kits online. One refill kit (which includes 3 large bottles of toner and new fuses to reset the printer’s computer) costs around $20 and can print out 6000 pages before we need to buy another kit.
I bought BROTHER all in one for about $50 after rebates at Staples 2 years ago.
The refilled cartridges are about $3.50 each at INKJETSUPERSTORE.com
i LOVE this printer and this cartridge place. Super cheap and lasts forever.
Here is the correct link! Sorry!
http://savingyourcents.blogspot.com/2008/08/upgrading-your-inkjet-to-laser.html
I, too, had many questions from readers about how to save moeny on ink! I wrote an article on how I upgraded to a laser printer! My initial investment was under $130 and I have not had to replace the toner yet! I have been running off of the same toner cartridge for 10 months now! Once I have to replace it…it will cost me $80…but definitely worth it for another 1 1/2 years or more of printing power!
You can read my article through this link!
http://savingyourcents.blogspot.com/2008/08/upgrading
Edit to my previous post:
The yield from a high-yield toner cartridge for the Brother Laser printer is 2600 copies and not 5000.
We have 2 Epson printers and a couple of years ago someone put me on to a website called megatoners.com. Color ink cartridges are $2.99 and Black is $3.99. Not long ago they were a dollar less than that! Shipping is $5 for orders up to $50. We have never had any trouble with their compatible cartridges (and they have them for all printers) but years ago when we tried refilling cartridges, our printer was eventually ruined.
My tip would be to only print the coupons you actually need to print. I once mistakenly chose the print all coupons option and wound up with a LOT of wasted paper and ink. And how many Sears Portrait coupons do I really need?
I agree with a few other posters on Laser printers. We use a Brother Laser(monochrome) printer which we purchased for $70 AR and we have been using it for about 7 mos. now and we still have about 80% of toner life left in it.
A High-Yield toner cartridge costs around $35 and supposed to yield around 5000 copies!
Plus, it has wireless connectivity which is a big convenience.
In the past, a couple of times we had gone and purchased new inkjet printers which were on sale for around $30 instead of spending on cartridges which would cost a little more than that actually.
Here is one I have not seen here-I use the $10 gift card coupons on prescriptions every time I see them for Target-then I “buy” my cartridges there with the gift cards. They sometimes have gift card deals on cartridges too and that only sweetens the deal. I have had problems with the refilled cartridges from Walgreens so I have quit doing that as it is not worth the hassle.
We splurged and got a (low end) laser printer so I could print handouts for the jr. Sunday School (~70 kids). We bought it 3 years ago and I’ve yet to replace the toner.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Buy a printer that takes super-cheap ink off craigslist. Only use your good photo printer for photos.
2. I found a website that sells dirt-cheap generic ink. Read about it here:
http://www.frugallivingnw.com/2008/11/saving-money-on-pinting-coupons.html
What a great topic! As someone earlier said I too buy INK itself and refill cartriges. It is super easy and saves me headache of running out of ink. Ok here is the link, I buy from this guy. http://stores.ebay.com/FULLERINKJETS He has kits for around $5-$20 and they last forever, his shipping is very fast and the package is small enough to fit in my mailbox. And also, every time i print coupons, i just let the coupon print and quickly press CANCELL button, so that the extra information doesn’t waste the ink and paper. My system is relatively green and cheap!!! ))) LOL Then I use the rest of the paper to print other coupons on it.
Sign up at Staples for their reward program and then make sure to keep/turn in your old cartridges for discounts as well. By the time we used our rewards points, in mail coupon and money from recycling our old color cartridge it came to less than $2.00…great deal!
I use a laser printer. The cartridges are about the same price as they are for my color printer (I can get them on Amazon for $55) but they last a long, long time. Depending on the cartridge and how much I print on each page, I can usually get anywhere from 3000-7000 pages. It’s worth the investment if you do a lot of printing.
GO TO EBATES for 16% cash back @ 123inkjets.com. I bought ink for my Canon PIXMA and it works just as well but SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than anywhere else (and I do my research.)
i go to the libarary sometimes and they allowed me to install coupons.com software so if you’re already going to be there for you kids then you should check it out!
I print at the library for 10 cents per page.
I agree with the statement to buy a laser printer. My DH & I are both in IT so we got one for when we do work around the house. We have had it for close to 5 years, it took me through grad school and I have done massive amount of coupon prints and I am only on my second toner cartridge. It was an investment up front, but in the long run it has been well worth the effort (plus, I often have cashier thank me for how readable my coupons are compared to others printed from the web, which does not impact the cost savings, but does make someone’s day a little easier :0
i second the ebay idea. I get new HP cartridges that haven’t expired for $15 or less – that’s less than refilling them. AND when I use refilled ones in my printer, they don’t work and my printer stops working.
Our home house and my husband business has laser printers. We have 7 printers total so we use alot of toner. We have used http://www.officesupplyoutfitters.com/ and really like them. The prices are GREAT and the service is amazing. Our toner at home depot cost around $115 and I got one from them for around $35 including shipping
Print them at work 😉
I bought a laser printer a few years ago for my home business and I LOVE it. I buy my toner refills on Ebay for a fraction of the price of a cartridge. It prints faster, cleaner and rarely do I ever have any problems with paper jams, etc. Well worth the $150.
Get a black and white laser printer. They’ll go on sale for about $50 every now and then. The toner cartridges last a very long time. It’s MUCH cheaper than ink.
I set my printer to the lowest ink setting as default. Often, “draft” or “everyday” and only in black and white. That’s saved me a lot!
Office Max lets you bring in 10 cartridges per week. If you have access to a lot of Dell, HP, or Lexmark carts, you can earn up to $120 per month. I think you can turn in more if you do the mail-in program.
We get our cartridges from Walmart. They have a generic brand that is recycled and it is a lot cheaper! Make sure when you take your cartridges to get refilled they are not the “starter cartridges” that come with your printer. It holds less ink than a regular cartridge and they will have problems refilling it and it may mess up your printer.
Buy ink on e-bay for sure. They run approx. 1.00 for a cartridge. When we bought our canon we looked into consumer reports and they said this was the best printer for being able to use generic ink refils on it. We have had no problems for many many years using generic. So look at consumer reports before you buy a new printer, but go with one that you can buy generic ink for and definately use e-bay. Way way cheaper than staples (w/rebate), wal-grens or wal-mart. I’m not a big e-bay fan, but for ink it’s worth it.
I just try very carefully to be aware of what I am printing first, At first I would press print and get three pages I don’t need at all. Just to get the one coupon that I needed. The target’s allow you to print the coupons at the front of the store this helps cut down on the number of pages printed as well. I also noticed that when crystal listed target coupons here that often it will take you to a site that shows, place number of coupons you need in the box this cuts down on a lot of unneeded printed paper. Walgreen’s sometimes does the refill for way less and paper is often cheap at staples. Other than that it cost about .06 per page to print so just be aware of this if you press print.
I have a laser printer which has been great for me! The cartridges are more than the ink jet but they also last longer. I had trouble with my hp inkjet and printing well enough for them the scan. This and the cost of ink is why I bought a laser printer.
DEFINITELY get a laser printer. We got ours about five years ago and it’s STILL going strong. Can’t say the same for our inkjet photo printer. Even if I print in b/w on the draft setting, it eats ink like crazy. The laser printer has MORE than paid for itself.
We buy our ink in bulk at Costco or just buy the generics at the store. It’s not the cheapest route, but it does help. I love our old style Cannons when we can find printer cartridges for them. They are just black and white printers, but they print TONS of paper for very cheap cartridges (think 3.00). I wish more printers were like those.
Remember that Coupons.com and Smartsource print their coupons 3 to a page. Try to fill your page, or if you only print one coupon, turn the paper around and over to use the other end to print a second coupon. Saves a lot of paper!
I don’t have a tip on ink but I do have a tip for saving paper. As a full time teacher and a part time graduate student, I go through a lot of paper. I print my coupons on the back of these old sheets of paper so that they are getting all the use that they can. After cutting out the coupons, I use the small skinny strips to make grocery lists on – they seem to be just the right size!
I purchase black ink from a Christian homeschooling family, and refill it myself: http://www.encoreink.com
I have tried to refill the color, but doesn’t work very well. I also reuse my paper. I put in a used piece that I may have printed out something on before. I try to save any flyers I might get that are only one-sided and use those too.
Someone else mentioned that a refilled cartridge ruined her printer… I had the same thing happen to me. It was a Walgreens refill and it was just printing in weird colors at first but after a few prints, the cartridge stopped working completely and now I can’t get it to work even with new cartridges.
Just be careful with the refills.
I sure hope people aren’t printing them in COLOR!!! My laser BW printer works just fine!!. I refill my toner cartridge at Cartridge World. It is about 1/3 cost of regular retail. They do inkjet cartridges, too.
I am a huge fan of eink2go.com. My epson requires six different cartridges @ about $15 each retail. I can purchase all six at eink2go.com cheaper than I could buy 2 at Walmart (including shipping). I need to purchase new cartridges every 2-3 months. My husband then takes the spent cartridges to Office Max and trades them for paper.
I’ve bought some cheap off the diaperswappers.com forum – probably they are for sale on other forums online. I also got one free on the clearance bin at Kroger’s! It rang up the wrong price (supposed to be $4 which was a bargain, anyway – and it rang up $19.99) and at Kroger if it rings up wrong you get one of that item free! I’d suggest keeping the number or code for your cartridge programmed into your cellphone or written in your planner – so that if you’re ever out somewhere you can check the clearance bins at some stores and snag a deal. I’ve also refilled my cartridges at Walgreen’s. They had trouble with my last color one, but the black came out just fine for $10.
And I forgot to say about laser printing to just ignore the first billion times it tells you to replace ink. Mine went like another month(!!)before it finally “put it’s foot down and would not print any more”. So this saves $, too.
I agree with Nichole! I was getting a message saying to replace ink in my computer. I was asking my husband if we could buy the ones that go on sale at Wags. He said we couldn’t because we have to use toner from Dell. Then he told me how long it’s been since we had to buy more and I was convinced! Less cost, less trouble.
this works if you are able to see the coupon before printing it: right-click & copy/paste it into another document (like Word) & fill up the page w/other coupons so that only those print, not any extra ads, recipes, etc. if you can’t copy/paste the actual coupon, hit your “print screen” button (usually up near your F keys on the top of your keyboard) and then go to a Word doc, right-click & paste & the image that was on your screen when you hit “print screen” will be pasted. you can then crop it so that only the coupon shows, and again, fill up your Word doc with only coupons.
this will save on paper & ink — but only if you can see the coupon before you print it. this works really well for coupons that don’t have a barcode, the type that are used for fast food restaurants a lot (like the recent arby’s deals).
I used a refilled catridge from Catridge World in my last HP PhotoSmart printer and it clogged the print head and ruined the printer. I saved $10 to spend $160! Stupid tax all the way. I will ALWAYS buy manufacturer brand cartridges from here on out. If an HP cartridge messes up my HP printer, I know where to take my complaint. I also print in draft quality to save ink and print fronts/backs of paper to save paper. Also, don’t forget to stock up in late summer at the back to school sales for your printer paper, it’s really cheap then.
When I first started I printed everything I could get my hands on, now I know I only print what I would buy normally. It isn’t worth not using it!
I switched printers I still have an ink jet but will be looking at a laser jet now for coupons. I switched from a dell to an HP and cut my cartridge coast in half. We usually refil once then get new. I go through staples but will also be going to check out HP.com now. Thanks!
We also use Cartridge World and have been very pleased. I was told they fill the cartridge full, HP only fills to about half their capacity. Also, our Cartridge World puts out monthly coupons in various publications (last one I found was in the Sparton Savings book at Kroger) for BOGO. They also have a stamp club card, buy 9 get one free. I refilled two HP 21 last week and after my coupon the total was $9.62 for both. I only print in black and white and on the economy setting.
A lot of printers you can get free or cheaply when you buy a computer are actually very expensive to run. They go through ink quickly and often cost 15 cents a page. If you have a black and white laser printer, pages might only cost 1cent to print. So if you have a cheap bubble jet or ink jet type printer, you ought to consider getting something that is cheaper in the long run.
We use Cartridge World to get our ink. Simply take in yours and they give you another one. We have an HP 3-in-1 printer and our color costs around $15 and black about $12. So I can fill two cartridges for the price of buying one new one!
I buy my ink cartridges on eBay, in bulk, and they’re not name-brand. We have an Epson. I bought 8 cartridges (2 of each color) for $27 and got free shipping. Not bad!
Plus, when I print coupons, I print one, then put that page back in the printer and print the second coupon on the back side, opposite end…if that makes sense, hard to describe!
LOL. I just sent you an email with my favorite printing tips in it! Guess I should’ve waited another 10 minutes 😉
1. print in black
2. highlight if you can and print selection only
3. recycle/reuse paper
Using the draft setting is a great tip, too!
I’ve honestly found it MUCH cheaper to purchase an inexpensive black and white laser printer. I know that sounds pricey, but for the cost of replacing your ink cartridges a couple of times, you can get one. If you can catch a printer recycling deal like Staples just had, you can get $50 off too. I just purchased another one for us, and my final cost will be $49.99. The toner cartridge that comes with the printer will last me for almost a year, and I do a LOT of printing for our business and my couponing.
I posted the idea of getting an inexpensive laser printer and how it works here: http://savingandgiving.blogspot.com/2009/04/inexpensive-laser-printer.html
It may seem like a big purchase, but it more than pays for itself over the long haul. It’s also nice, because there’s no wet ink or leaky cartridges to deal with!
I do a number of things to keep the cost down. I refill black and color cartidges at Walgreens when they have a special. The black is of equal quality as new but I only use the color on coupons. When I need new color or photo cartidges for printing photographs, I sometimes purchase them off eBay. I keep my empty cartidges and turn them in to Staples as part of their rewards program. When I buy from Staples, I price-match to Walmart and use the rewards coupon. I’ve started to keep an eye out for print cartidges at yard sales, which I purchase for .50 cents or less each, to trade in to the rewards program (worth $3.00 each) or to resell on eBay. Finally, I print on recycled paper from my husband’s work. No store has ever rejected my coupon because it is printed on recycled paper.
I would not suggest refilling your cartridges. Most printer companies are putting a chip in your printer so that it will not work right if you refill cartridges. And it will mess your printer up eventually. The new Kodak printer has cheap refill cartridges.
We love Walgreens! Even if the refills are not on sale, they’re still a really great deal.
If you live in the Houston area, my husband is in the business of recycled laser cartridges. Laserplus (713) 774-1222. It’s much less expensive to buy recycled because many of the parts still work once the ink is gone and they guarantee that all their products will perform as good or better than OEM.
They also buy certain models of used cartridges at competitive prices, too.
Although Laserplsu does not deal in ink jet, there are DIY refill kits widely available (with reduced quality, of course but good enough for this purpose.)
I was excited a couple months ago when Walgreens had their ink refills for $5 and also the MIR for $5. I brought it home, put it in my printer and my printer has never worked the same since! It has completely ruined it!! a $100 printer gone 🙁 now I’m going to have to figure out how to get a new printer 🙁
So, imo, I definitely don’t recommend refiling ink cartridges!
I have heard about a couple of websites that you can use to print just what you want, without all the ads and stuff that always print along with coupons. I was just reading about http://www.printwhatyoulike.com and I know there are other sites out there. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but that’s one way to save some ink and paper. 🙂 And I always print on the back of paper for just about everything. And we have bought compatible (not brand name) cartridges on ebay for pretty cheap before too.
meritline.com
I buy all my ink from there….dirt cheap
We have had this discussion on our blog too. There were several suggestions that I will mention:
1) Set your printer to print in black/white or grayscale only. You have to do this from the Printer panel versus on the pop-up printer screen (as this pop-up won’t appear with the coupon sites).
2) If you do print in color and it is just one coupon, hit “cancel” after the actual coupon has printed so that you don’t waste your ink on all the extra advertisment.
3) Refill your cartridges at Walgreen’s or another local ink filler for a fraction of the price of a new cartridge.
4) Ask your office supply store if they offer rebates or money back when you turn in or recycle used ink cartridges.
I hope that these suggestions can help someone else.
Walgreens does ink refills, or you can buy do it yourself kits. That is what my husband does. We also Got a whole Bulk Lot of ink wholesale, we sell the ones that do not work for our printer on ebay and use the ones we need, we have recovered all our money from our ebay sells and have about a years worth of ink for FREE!!!!!! Be creative.
I get my printer ink from a site online 123inkjets.com
the ink is very cheap and you get a discount for buying multiples
i also have an account with Fatwallet.com which if you click on the site through their website you get cachback on your purchase and often free shipping if you order over $50 worth of ink
Fatwallet.com is free to join and they have most of the online stores listed with them. some cash backs are small, others are big but if you have to shop you may as well get something back.
i just get the cheap printer paper for coupons…and also only print in black…
Walgreens fills your own printer cartridges quite cheaply and they even put out coupons at least once a month! bogo, half off, etc.
When printing a single coupon, I use the sheet of paper again by turning it around and feeding through my printer again.
I also have turned the printer setting to print at “draft” quality instead of “normal” quality, this uses less ink.
For the printer ink, I can get ink at http://www.123inkjets.com. I can get my ink for much less and I get a 20% rebate from http://www.mrrebates.com on top of that. If you are interested in Mr. Rebates and would be amenable to using me as your referrer, my e-mail address is actdree at gmail dot com.
We buy our ink in bulk on ebay. We’re able to get alot of ink really cheap. We bought about 20 cartridges for around $20.
We find that Cartridge World is a great place 🙂 Half the price and they work just as well!
Thanks for posting this question. I am also on a mission to find inexpensive toner. I have an HP Laserjet 1012 and the toner seems to run around $70-$80. Recently, I found that Amazon.com offers refurbished toner. At $28 a cartridge, I am tempted to try. Of course, the HP toner would print better quality pages. But, for coupons, I think I can make the sacrifice 🙂
I am glad you asked this, because I was wondering the same thing.
I just refilled mine at Costco for the first time and it was super cheap! I use the HP 92 and HP 93 and it was 7.99 for each, so around 16 something total. They have a list of all the cartridges they refill. I have heard Walgreens does refills too.
Also forgot to add that many coupons print out a recipe or ad after the coupon, if you see this is happening (and some brands you will just learn have these), you can hit the stop print button on your computer and save some ink. Just be careful if you are printing more than one coupon because if you stop printing it will cancel the rest of your coupons and you will not be able to print them again if there is a limit.
123inkjets.com
You could set your printer to draft mode and black only to save ink. I used to do that with my old Brother printer and I saved about 75% on ink. Depending on your cartridge Walgreens does ink refills for a decent price (at the photo counter) and I’m almost positive you can use your Register Rewards for it.
I have tried and used a Walgreens refill and they are fairly inexpensive. Last month they had a rebate which made it almost free and other months they have days or weeks when it is $5. If you can figure out a way to print your coupons just in black ink and not color, that will save you money too as black ink is generally cheaper to refill or buy.
I have a HP Laserjet 1020. It only prints black and white…no wasting color ink. Toner cartridges are more expensive but you get significantly more pages out of 1 toner cartridge than 3 ink cartridges.
They are usually about $100 or so. Here is a link for one that is $100 after rebate: http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/laserjet/1/storefronts/CB411A%2523ABA
I’ve recently discovered that Walgreen’s will refill most any printer cartridges. It’s $10 for black and $15 for color. Way cheaper to refill my Dell cartridges there than to have to order online.
Only one way: get a laser printer.
Rather than $30/500 sheets (many ink printers), you’ll pay $25-$35 for 3500 sheets (especially if you buy remanufactured toner cartridges). Brother is recommended.
* Low cost printing.
* Better quality.
* Faster.
* Often have network connections, so easy to put on the home network.
Enjoy.
I have set my printer to default to black and white prints on the grayscale or lowest quality of prints I can. If I need to print something at another time in color or of higher quality, I select it via my preferences for that particular print. I also refill my ink cartridges at Walgreens. They charge $10 for black and $15 for color and sometimes they have free refill days or coupons off for refills. FYI-My printer often says that my cartridges are empty after refilled but they really are filled. Hope that makes sense and helps.
I’ve heard coupons do not need to be printed in color – if you can set your printer to print only in black then you only have one cartridge to replace.
Recycle paper – printing coupons on the back of used paper is a great way to keep paper cost down. I’ve never had problems using Q’s with something printed on the back – clipped Q’s from inserts do. I always re-use paper that does not contain personal information.
I don’t remember where, but I read this tip when I was new to couponing – If you have the space, money(can find a good deal) or need a new printer, a laser printer can help cut cost. A refill cartridge can be $50 but will print 3000 pages.
I also have a question on how to get the coupons to scan at the register. I print with an ink jet printer, and my coupons won’t scan at the stores. Any advice?
I replace all my cartridges at Cartridge World. They have sites all over the country. You turn in your old, used one and they give you a refilled one. I’ve been using them for several years. They have worked great. The only caveat is that they dry out quicker than those sealed in plastic, so don’t buy a bunch of extras and have them sit around for months. They will dry out. that being said, I highly recommend them.
at target you can print the latest ones from their kiosk. Takes a few seconds at the customer services center but does save ink/paper.
Also if you only print one coupon flip the paper and put it in the tray and print a coupon on the back to save paper.
Print in black and white – saves ink.
Minor things but they do help.
Also always use your ink cartridges to save money toward your next cartridge purchase or submit them to places like walgreens for free photos.
I have about 10 ink cartridges. I usually wait for an amazing sale at walgreens. Last time I got for 30 using a mixture of rebates, sale and a 5/20 coupon or something like that. I’m running out again though as I use these for my business as well.
Good luck!
I list savings tips here
http://www.swapsavers.com/group/savingsswappers/forum
Here is one related to printing
Set Printer Preferences to Draft
Your cartridge could last 50% longer by changing the printer settings. When the ink cartridge is empty bring it to an office supply store (like Staples or Office Max) and you will get a $3 coupon off your next purchase or refill it.
Also Walgreens will refill your ink for around $10 but only certain cartridges (mine wasn’t listing)
Good Luck!
Get a printer with a fast draft option or set it to always print black and white. It helps if you’ve bought a printer that is built for economy. I love my HP c7280 All-in-One. I print a lot of coupons, plus homeschool stuff and only have to replace cartridges about 3x a year.
I actually use a cheap laser printer (I think we got our for $150 a couple of years back, so they have to be cheaper then that by now) instead of an ink jet as they tend to print faster and don’t use up the “ink” as fast. Yes the cartridges are a lot more expensive but they last a lot longer too. Plus a lot of times if you buy the store brand toner cartridge they will give you money towards the purchase of another if you return it to them. For me more of the issue is the paper cost as they don’t exactly make the best use of a page when printing. I try to bring home my recycle paper from work and use the back side for my coupons. It doesn’t matter if there is stuff on the back side when you go to scan the bar code on the front.
Well I dont know what is near you but I use the cheapest ink cartridge I can find. I get mine at Meijer, they have a meijer brand that is half the price of a HP brand. I have an old ink jet printer, and I get the cheapest off brand paper I can find too… I think with the amount of $$ saved with the coupons it is worth it, and I only print what I KNOW I will use.
I would suggest buying a laser jet printer. It will come with a cartridge of course and it will last 10 times longer. I was given a laser jet when I started college and even through school didn’t have to replace it for 5 years!! They are probably 3 times as expensive to replace but last so much longer it is totally worth it.
i think it all depends on what kind of printer you have, some cartridges are easier to find refills or non-OEM cartridges for less expensive prices.
one thing i do to conserve paper though, is to print my coupons on the back of old paper that i don’t need any more (and doesn’t have sensitive information). why kill a tree printing out all those coupons?
I learned a while back that inkjet printers have a higher long-term cost than lasers. Toner seems to last longer than inkjet cartridges since they don’t dry up or get clogged. Nowadays, with the lower cost of technology, you can pick up a black and white laser for under $200.
I don’t have any great tips on ink…but, I do like to print on the back of scrap paper to save on paper…better for the earth and better for my pocketbook! Anything from junk mail to old school newsletters!
Being new to money saving… I am not sure this will work for everyone BUT, we recently bought a Brother laser printer. The printer cost about $10 more than two replacement cartridges for our other printer (we usually have to buy a pack with one color cartridge and one black and white). My husband says that we will get thousands (yes!) more copies out of this new printer / cartridge system than we did with the old. We still have the old printer because we need to make copies sometimes and I use it to scan documents but, I print coupons to the laser printer now!
Library! Most likely you wont be able to print coupons like from coupons.com I think it is cause they require you to install a program and you wont be able to do that at the library but other than that I have save so much by just stopping there and printing some of my coupons.
I also refill my cartridges at walgreens when they go on special (I have two black cartridges) for that reason and I always print my coupons on black gray scale.
http://www.cartridgeworldusa.com/
This is usually where we get ours done they are fast and pretty cheap!
I have an HP printer and I buy all my ink from their company’s website. They are very often running deals where you get a gift card towards your next purchase and I just keep rolling them over, it has always ended up being cheaper then any store deal. Also, I take the ink cartridges to office stores to get deals like free paper or $3 off a future purchase. I have tried refilling cartridges but have never been happy with the quality for the small amount of money saved over ordering from HP.
In the south we have a business called Rapid Refills. It is about $10 cheaper per cartridge than any of the mass retail stores. If you take your old cartridges you get a $3 credit. I don’t know if they are nationwide.
I’m using a Lexmark color printer w/ the All-in-One cartridge ($25). I set my printer preference to Quick Print and uncheck the Auto Image Sharpening. So far it’s working out well for me, and I do print lots of coupons for myself and to give out to others.
We are at the library at least once a week, and I try to take the opportunity to print my “10 pages per day” when I am there. That helps a bit.
Buy a laser printer. Laser printers have come down in price so much the last couple years. You can get one for much less than $100. And a $30 toner cartridge will last you for at least 3000 prints. The new printer will pay for itself in less very quickly.
I’m not an electronics junkie, but our (bottom of the line, cheapie) laser printer is a work-horse and worth every pennie!
One recent tip I found on a blog is to print Target coupons at their kiosks. If you go the kiosk and go to Target.com, you will see the site just as you do at home. Just print as usual! FREE COUPONS!!! Also, I have found that Walgreen’s has the cheapest printer refills ($10 for black, $15 for color) and they work great. Use your RR to get one of those!!!
We have a “quickprint” setting on our printer. That REALLY helps, and the barcodes scan fine. We refill at Walgreens.
We buy the ink ourselves and refill the cartridges ourselves. I also change the printing preferences on my printer so that it uses less ink. Another way I save money is by pressing cancel on the printer after the coupon has printed out. This avoids printing the advertisements whenever it’s possible to do so. Then, I put the paper back in the tray so that the next coupon prints on the otherside. I give the scraps of paper to my son so that he can draw on them.
I return the empty cartridges to Staples to receive $3 back which comes on a monthly “check” towards your next purchase.
To save on paper, I bring scrap paper home from work and print coupons on the blank side. I also save any paper that comes in the mail (solicitations, etc) and print on the backs of those as well.
Walgreens has specials periodically to refill your cartridges. I got lucky this month and when I picked up my color cartridge from there, it had a sticker that said “Didn’t pass test”. Apparently when they tested it out, it wasn’t working properly. I brought it home, put it in my printer and after printing 2 or 3 strangly colored coupons, it began to work perfectly!!! And since I wasn’t charged anything at all, I added that 15.oo back into my grocery budget!!
I purchased a printer refill kit on Ebay. (My dad says you can get them at Walmart and other places too, but I didn’t know/haven’t looked.) It was about $10-14, but I’ve been using it for months. When the ink starts printing poorly, I take the cartridges out and use the kit to refill them. (basically syringes and ink bottles) I have an HP printer and the refills cost about $15 each for a color one and a black one. So I’ve really been happy with it. I usually refill over a weekend, when needed, because weekends are usually slow for new coupons/new deals. If you need perfect printing every time, it may not be for you, but it works for my coupon printing needs.
My husband works for a Computer/Printer company and he would tell you not to go cheap on your cartridges. Refilling cartridges will ruin your printer far faster than buying new cartridges.
I suggest that if you are really into couponing then buy a lazer printer. They are not cheap ($200 for a black and white) but you only have to buy new toner about once a YEAR!! So in reality you are saving major bucks!!
We own an hp LaserJet 3015 (search on eBay) and it is heavenly. If you print coupons from your inkjet printer then you will be putting the same amount of money you save back into print cartridges…so printing coupons is not worth it.
I SERIOUSLY suggest a nice LaserJet printer!!
Watch out at walgreens. There are often refills for cheap.
Join staples rewards for free, get their “club card”, and watch the savings!! For each emptry catridge you return, three dollars is credited to your account- up to 10 each month. That is $30 free each month just for returning catridges. I snag them from my office, have my kids collect them at school, etc.
Also, watch out at staples (and staples.com if there isn’t one close by) for their EASY rebate program. Just last week I picked up two reams of paper for $1 each after rebate (plus free chocolate after rebate!) and two 60 ct printer 4 x 6 photo paper for $1 each after rebate.
I print all my coupons on recycled paper. (paper that has been printed on the other side) and I print in black/white. So far no one seems to mind and I save a TON of paper that way!
Also I buy my ink in 4 packs at Walmart. It seems to be cheaper that way.
This plagues me as well….certainly cuts into the savings. I spent $100 (!) on cartridges at Staples yesterday.
Staples *does* rebate $3 to your Staples reward card for each cartridge that you bring in for recycling. Therefore, of the 7 cartridges I purchased yesterday I will receive a rebate of $21.
Not the scale of savings that I generally look for 😉 ~ but better than nothing. FWIW, I have tried refilled cartridges and had them RUIN a printer…I know that some people love this method, but I am leary.
Blessings to all!
We have our cartridges refilled, and they cost about half of what the new ones do. Some places do a better job than others, so it’s a good idea to ask around for recommendations of what’s available in your area.
I print them on the lowest quality setting (“draft”). They still scan just fine and it uses a lot less ink. Also, when a coupon is a full page (you know, with and ad at the bottom) I cancel it before it prints the whole page so that it doesn’t waste all that ink.
Office Max does refills for around $10 a cartridge and it’s even less if you have a Max Perks card, which you can sign up for at the store, and earn $ towards future purchases.
Our local Staples will pay you to recycle your ink cartridges thru them. Just take in the empty cartridges and they send you a check in the mail (only good at Staples) and use that check toward new ink.
I buy our printer ink from printpal.com. They have cartridges for a lot of different brands/models. I only pay $8 for color and $6 for black!
We have an Epson (a rather cheap printer) but the reason why we like it is because we have refillable cartridges. We buy one cartridge and the ink and then refill it when needed. It saves a ton of money.