Saving on Printer Ink When Printing Coupons

With the ability to print coupons at home comes the added expense of ink, and for those of you who haven’t noticed ink is really expensive! We couponers are fabulous at saving money on most things, so why stop at ink?  I’ve found several ways to help you cut back on the cost of ink while printing your coupons!

Your Printer Makes a Difference

If you’re in the market for a new printer, that’s a good place to start on ink savings.  Getting a cheaper printer doesn’t always mean a better deal.  Some cheaper printers cost only a bit more than the ink cartridges they use!  Also, you need to take into account how many pages per cartridge a printer can print.  A cheaper printer may only print a couple hundred pages per cartridge, while a more expensive one can print thousands!  Take the time to do the research online before making your purchase.

Choosing Your Cartridge

When it comes time to buy a new ink cartridge, consider buying a generic brand.  Your printer may say to only use a specific brand of ink cartridge, but as long as you choose a cartridge that matches your printer you should be just fine.  These generic brand ink cartridges can be incredibly cheap!  OfficeMax sells theirs for as low as $9.00! That is an incredible price for something that might normally cost you much more. 

Preview Before You Print

Another way to help save money on ink is to check before you print!  Before hitting that print button, hit ‘print preview’ to check to make sure that your coupons are going to print how you want them to.  If you don’t preview first, you may end up with pages of wasted ink.

Check Your Printer Settings

Changing how you print can help save you money.  First of all, you don’t need to print your coupons in color!  Stick to black and white; it’s cheaper and black ink cartridges tend to be able to print more pages per cartridge than a color ink cartridge.  Another thing you can do to help cut down on ink is to print in draft mode.  When you are in the print menu, select ‘printing preferences’ or ‘options’ and then ‘print quality’.  From here choose ‘draft mode’.  This method of printing will result in lower quality prints, but it still works just fine, and it will save you both time and money!

Refilling Your Ink Cartridges

Refilling your empty ink cartridges saves you money, and it helps reduce in excess waste.  It’s a win-win!  When you choose to refill your ink cartridge instead of buying a new one, you can save up to 70%! Several office supply stores and even some drugstores offer ink cartridge refill services.

• Wallgreens will refill a black or color cartridge for $12.99.  They offer this service for Dell, HP, Lexmark, Okidata, Primera, Sharp, and Xerox cartridges.  Not Canon or Epson.
• Costco will refill HP, Canon, Lexmark, and Dell cartridges for $7.99-$9.99.

When you put these refilled cartridges into your printer, you may get a message that the ink is still low.  Don’t worry about this, but do print a test page to make sure everything looks fine.  If your test page looks good, you’re in business!  You can usually refill ink cartridges 4-6 times.

Recycling Saves the Earth and Your Money

Are you about to chuck that old ink cartridge? Wait! If you are a member of reward programs at some office supply stores you can do a good deed and save yourself some money! 

• If you are a member of the rewards program at Staples, you can get $2.00 back in Staples Rewards with every recycled ink cartridge.
• At OfficeMax, with each recycled and visibly undamaged HP, Dell, and Lexmark ink cartridge you earn $3.00 in MaxPerks.

Now you know how best to print your coupons!  Save time, save the planet, and save your money!

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