A Quick and Easy Guide to Saving Money Printing Coupons

Coupons are an easy way to save money, and they are readily accessible online.  You can find a coupon for just about anything on the internet.  Unfortunately, printing the coupons can cost a small fortune, which eats into the precious savings you were hoping to achieve.  Printer ink is, ounce for ounce, one of the most expensive liquids on the planet it seems (note:  I have no evidence actually proving this; just the empty feeling in my wallet after purchasing it).

There are cheaper options, though.  Most families use a standard inkjet printer, and printing coupons can quickly drain the ink.  To save on ink with an inkjet printer, there are a couple of options that can benefit your pocketbook:

1. Set your printer to print drafts.  Drafts will use less ink.
2. Set your printer to print in grayscale (black and white).  This will save on color ink, which makes black ink look cheap.
3. Refill your ink cartridges.  Kits can easily be purchased online that allow you to refill your own ink cartridges.  The kits cost less than one new cartridge, and will generally get you at least a dozen refills.

To save even more printing, try switching over to a laser printer.  While not extremely expensive, the initial cost of the printer is more than an inkjet, but the savings quickly add up, making it a worthy investment.  To further save, buy replacement toner on ebay, where you can get it for 1/3 the cost of retail. 

We don’t waste “good” paper on coupons.  Good paper is new, clean paper.  We instead reuse paper that’s only been used on one side.  As teachers, we have a ready supply of paper that students would otherwise throw away (I spent enough time grading it, so if they’re not going to do anything with it, I certainly am J ).  We also reuse one-sided junk mail and other papers we don’t need.  This helps save more money and also helps the environment by reusing the paper.

Recycling cartridges can further save you money.  Staples offers $2 rebates for each cartridge you turn in.