When I moved, I lost my printer ink refills so I had to buy more.
I’ve actually haven’t had to buy ink for a long time because my husband’s friend worked for the printer company and gave me a bag of ink cartridges, which lasted me 5 years!
I knew printer ink cartridges were expensive but I didn’t realize how much until I had to buy some.
The Epson printer I have is about 10 years old. Back when I bought it, it was the coolest thing since it could copy, print, and scan.
And it could print photos pretty well. But after using it for awhile, I realized how pricey it was to use.
The frustrating thing is that the printer won’t print if it runs out of any color, even if you want to only print in black. Seems like such a scam!
At Staples, black and color ink costs a total of $82 including tax!
And you can’t buy just the one color that you need because they’re packaged in the multi-colored 3 pack.
With $82, we could almost buy a brand new printer! So I did some online searching and found my ink on eBay for only $32 including shipping!
That’s a $50 savings just for 5 minutes of work! And I did a Buy It Now so I didn’t have to bid and wait. And my ink arrived within 2 business days.
I have to admit that I got lucky. Since my printer is at least 10 years old, the ink is hard to find. That’s also probably why someone was selling it on eBay.
I always score on eBay for things that are difficult to find. Last time I found my dad a battery for his old cell phone for only $5, that wasn’t available anywhere else.
Then I needed some blank, printable address labels. At Office Depot, they’re $12.
With the success of saving $50 behind me, I was confidant that I could find it cheaper elsewhere.
Well, I did, on Amazon.com. They sold the same address labels for only $6.50, free shipping included with Amazon Prime, which I have through Amazon Mom.
By the way, I ended finding my missing ink cartridges in a closet. So I’ll have ink to last me through a year or two. Then, I’ll consider a buying a new printer with cheaper ink.
Places to Check Prices Before Buying at an Office Supply Store
We had a great discussion on the Living Richly on a Budget Facebook page about where to find cheap ink. Here are your suggestions.
Cheaper Ink Alternatives:
Refill ink at Costco or Walgreens.
This only works for certain printer brands. Epson isn’t included.
Check Cartridge Wold.
Cartridge World is a physical store. They don’t sell anything online. But I did find a few stores near me. They do ink refills as well as sell ink cartridges.
Get a Kodak printer.
Years ago, I sat in on a presentation by Kodak. They talked about how Kodak developed a way to make ink cartridges cheaper, by removing the sensor for the cartridge itself and putting it on the printer instead.
This was the reason why ink was so expensive. It was the sensor.
It was an ingenious idea. However, Kodak filed for bankruptcy recently so I don’t know what will happen with their printers.
Buy a black ink only laser jet printer.
It seems that laser jet printers are the printer of choice for extreme couponers. If you don’t need to print in color or print pictures, this may be a great option.