I think this is probably the 2nd most popular question that I get! I personally just purchased a wireless printer (so I can print coupons from my iPad!) and I love it!! I print a lot of coupons (almost every one that I post) so I go through ink like crazy. Here are a couple of tips that I use to save on printer ink:
A couple of tips that I use:
– I only purchase black ink
– Use Gray Scale (this is a setting on your printer that you can select to make sure the ink doesn’t print as dark)
– Try to purchase a printer that allows refillable ink cartridges (surprisingly–there are few printers that allow for this!)– some have suggested InksOutlet – I personally have never used this site but a lot of you have scored great discounts on ink here.
So let us know! What do you do to save on printer ink?
My Name is Josie and I live in sunny Southern California and I am a stay at home mom to three beautiful boys. We all know that living in California is a task of it's own and saving in California IS possible! I started this blog mainly to share all the awesome deals out there and show others how to save in any area of life. Even though you may make the commitment to be frugal and pinch your pennies doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice!
I buy mine online at ABCink. If you buy the generic multipacks, the ink is very inexpensive. Also when you go to purchase a new printer, make sure that the generic ink cartridges are available and check the prices. I also have a printer that has a seperate cartridge for each color,so I only change the color i am out of instead of a multicolor cartridge.
For those who have refillable ink cartridges, Costco (If you have a membership) usually has coupons for refilling the ink in the monthly coupon booklets. My friend does it all the time.
I recycle my ink cartridges at staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, paper, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it at Walmart. Another way to save $$ on ink is using ur rewards pts towards ur ink(Walgreens…I’ve personally never done this but I plan to the next time I need ink) cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle my ink cartridges @staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, paper, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it @Walmart. Another way to save $$ on ink is using ur rewards pts towards ur ink (like @Wags I’ve personally never done this but I plan to the next time I need ink) cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle my ink cartridges @staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it @Walmart. Another way to save $$ on ink is using ur rewards pts towards ur ink (like @Wags I’ve personally never done this but I plan to the next time I need ink) cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle my ink cartridges @staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it @Walmart. I have also considered using rewards pts towards ink(like @wags or even kmart)cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle my ink cartridges @staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it @Walmart. I have also considered using rewards points towards ink(like @wags or even kmart)cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle my ink cartridges @staples to get reward $$. In the past I’ve used the money to buy things I needed like lead refills, tp, etc. If target isn’t having a special promo on the ink I use(hp60) then ill just buy it @Walmart. I have also considered using rewards points towards ink(like @wags or even Kmart) cvs could be good too if they carry ur printers ink and u could use ur ecb and possibly the %off coupons they sometimes have
I recycle ink cartridges at Staples and ask neighbors, friends and co-workers for their old ink cartridges. I can’t remember the last time I actually paid money OOP for ink since you can earn up to $20 per month. I use the Fast/Gray scale print setting so I only have to replace them once every couple of months. On top of saving on ink, I also use recycled paper for coupons. Any junk mail offers I get, I just use the other side of the paper to print my coupons on. Also, I bring home printed paper from work that I don’t need to use anymore.
what do u get for recycling old cartridges?
Staples gives you 2,- per cartridge but sometimes they have specials. Last month they offered 4,- per cartridge with $50,- ink purchase.
I (or the hubby mostly) inject ink into the cartridges. We use Inkjet Ink Refill With Injection Syringes. We first checked if the printer/s we wanted to buy were compatible. A set of these refills lasted roughly a year for us (mostly coupon printing with this printer) and it was under $60. It takes a bit of patience to do it but well worth it.
Just use a laser printer… Toner lasts forever
Second that. Don’t waste your money with inkjet (unless you need to print in color). B&W laser is the way to go and use generic cartridge refills.
Any suggestions on brands?
I started buying ink refill kits on ebay. I’ve done it twice now and it worked great and I paid less than $5 each time for an amount of ink that would cost several times that, even on sale. As Josie mentioned, you have to be careful in terms of what printers this will work with… I ended up giving away my HP printer because it wouldn’t use refillable or generic cartridges. (I have a Canon now). I needed to replace my printer as I wanted a wireless one, but I am realizing that dumping the HP would have been the right move anyway as the ink savings would have paid for a new printer in a matter of months. I was surprised at how easy refilling my own cartridge was (you can google it and find instructions/advice) — I actually just ordered a color refill kit which will be more complicated as it has three colors to refill on one cartridge, but I thought it was worth a try (it cost about $4) because it if can figure out how to do it my ink costs will be less than ever!
I have a printing question I can’t figure out. Has anyone mastered the art of printing coupons in B&W on an HP printer/Macbook combination?
Ariana,
I had the same combo (HP/Macbook) and was never able to do so either — from what I understand from the research I did, there was no way do actually do it. VERY frustrating! That was another thing that drove me crazy with my old printer; even if I was printing a black-only page and had a full black cartridge, it would not print at all if the color cartridge was low. I am pretty happy with the printer I have now, but if I ever need to replace it I’m definitely going to do my research to try to avoid some of these issues!
You can change your default settings to print in grey scale and fast draft to save ink.
Go to this link
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=358428
scroll down to tshoaf’s post for a pretty clear explanation. Just make sure you save the settings to be your default settings since the pop up print menu doesn’t come up when printing coupons.
i use hp 61.. tho its only 13.99 at wm i still spend sooo much money after all the coups. cant find it cheaper at reg price…… but i scored 3 days ago at wg when i hit up the clearance and found hp 61 all marked down to 7.00 bucks.
wish i could refill this type:(
Ariana, even my hubby can’t figure out how to print in B&W on our mac. Extremely frustrating!
See my post above! The extended print menu has the a drop down menu, click the Paper Type/Quality option then go to the Color drop down menu and click Gray Scale.
Because I have a picky HP, there isn’t much I can do to save. I do use Staples Rewards or other store rewards if I’m in a pinch. I do have a tip for printing though, try to check a database before you print, I’ve noticed that some sites make notices every time a new printable is a available and a lot of the time we get the same coupon in our inserts.
I surf slickdeals.net as well, and often you’ll find a Laser Brother printer on sale from Staples every now and then, their ink are comparably cheaper when you get them from Meritline.com; Brother Laser printers are very reliable and have many features, I picked up a wireless one not too long ago and it’s an all in one machine.
I recycle my ink at Staples and use the rewards towards more ink. My Staples has recently added Amazon as one of the “stores” they will price match, so if you bring in a copy of the webpage with the same ink on it, they will match that price. The ink for my Canon is usually at least $5 cheaper on Amazon- just make sure you have enough ink to print the web page out
I buy non-OEM ink from Amazon for my wireless Canon–and they work just fine. Each cartridge usually costs me less than $2–then when they’re empty I take them to Staples for my $2 reward.
My Canon MFC-465 just took a dive, but I would like to give someone the new ink cartridges for someone who lives in the Rancho Cucamonga area.
My printer no longer works and I have a new black and color ink cartridges to a Canon MFC 465, if anyone lives in the Rancho Cucamonga area, and would like to pick them up.