How to Get Cheap Printer Ink and Paper

There are many places where you can get great coupons online, and often these coupons are higher value than those that come in the paper. I suspect that the reason printable coupons often have higher values is that the consumer is using their own ink and paper to print them. With that in mind, here are a few tips to minimize your ink and paper usage:

Get printer paper for cheap: Staples regularly has paper for $1 after rebate. Around back-to-school time I've seen it sold for $0.50 after rebate or even free after rebate (in fact, in the last month I have scored 4 reams of paper for free at Staples, and that's not counting the 2 I missed by not going in one week). Staples rebates are very reliable and can be submitted online in under 5 minutes. You can receive your rebate via Paypal or check.

Get printer ink for cheap: I am a firm believer that you should buy a printer based on the price of ink, and not the price of the printer. Inexpensive printers tend to have the priciest ink. When buying a new printer, shop around for ink first. I find that 4-cartridge (black, yellow, magenta, blue) printers have cheaper ink than those that take 2 cartridges (black, color). If you can get off-brand ink cartridges you can really save. I buy my off-brand ink cartridges on Ebay, where I can get a set of 4 cartridges (black, yellow, magenta, blue) for under $20. These last me about a year, at which point I return my empty cartridges to Staples where they give me $2 back for each one in Staples rewards.

The last trick I have for stretching your printer ink is to set your printers settings to use less ink for each print. Your printer preferences generally allow 3-4 ink settings, usually draft, normal, and high- or photo-quality. My printer has a setting called "fast normal" which uses less ink but still prints my coupons high enough quality to be scanned at the register. Play around with your settings and set your default to use less ink.

Utah Deal Diva has some more great tips on saving money on ink and paper here.