"It seemed that my husband and I were constantly changing ink cartridges in our ink jet printer. At least twice a month we would have to do so and at 30-40 dollars each time it became quite expensive. Although the printers themselves have dropped dramatically in price, the ink that keeps them chugging along offsets the bargain. I found the cartridges frustrating as you could never really 'see' the contents, so you never knew if they were actually fully filled when you purchased them. Refilling yourself negates any warranty you may have on your printer so you would have to consider that option carefully. Even with purchasing the recommended name brand cartridges, I once had a brand new cartridge 'bleed' all over the inside of my printer. That was a terrible mess and enough to discourage any thoughts of using recycled or refilled cartridges if I ever had any!

 We determined that most of our printing was black and white and we could live without the color option, so we purchased a laser printer for around $100. The cartridge was pricey (about $60) but this printer produces endless copies and has saved us a lot of money. In the year that we have owned it, I have only had to replace the cartridge once. We got about 8 months of printing for the cost of just one month on the ink jet printer. So, if you are burning through cartridges like we were, you may want to reassess your printing needs and consider a laser printer (which, by the way, is lightning fast too). You can still maintain an ink jet for the occasional color needs if most of your printing, like ours, was black and white." ~ Theresia

"Recently I noticed that the copy centers of all the large box office supply stores now have ink refill machines. They will refill your old cartridges for half or less than the cost of their store brands. You just bring in your cartridge and they put them in the machine and the refill takes a couple of minutes." ~ Linda B.

"Print in the draft mode whenever possible. Purchase non-name brand cartridges. Even laser ones are cheaper if you get reconditioned ones. Have several sources for your cartridges; I purchase where they are the cheapest. One of my favorite sources is www.megatoners.com. Print in black & white primarily, because color is more expensive. As far as paper is concerned, I use the backs of scratch paper for a lot of my printing. I use letters I get in the mail (junk mail) and bring home from work, used fax cover sheets, junk faxes, etc.. Of course, I do not use anything confidential; those never leave work." ~ Chris in Iowa