Pamela asks: What printer do you use? My ink budget is draining my savings! Thanks in advance!
Some printers can eat up ink and kill your savings.
There are several factors to take into consideration:
- The type of printer you are working with.
- The type of coupons you are printing.
- How much your cartridge costs.
Here are three separate price breakdowns based on several different models of printers. This DOES NOT take into consideration the cost of paper, because you don’t really pay for paper do you? You will see the great variation in costs per printer. Note: These are just some comparisons of average printers, your printer may or not get the same performance.
Canon Inkjet Photo Printer
– Must buy (4) Color and (1) Black Cartridge @ $10.40 – $19.00
-Yields 170-250 pages per toner
– Total Cost per page: $.04 cents per page (presuming lowest price, highest prints) – $.11 cents per page(presuming highest price, lowest prints) ** Taking into consideration you are NOT going to use the color cartridges to print. Only black ink is taken into price factor.
– Printing 3 Coupons Per Page: $.013 cents per coupon to 4 cents per coupon
HP Black and White Laser Jet Printer
– Must buy (1) Black Toner Cartridge $115.00
– Yields 6,000 – 8,000 pages per toner
– Total Cost per page: $.014 cents per page – $.019 cents per page
– Printing 3 Coupons per page: $.004 per coupon to $.006 per coupon
* Note you will need to purchase a drum over time. I have had my printer for quite awhile and have not had to make this investment.
HP Black and White Laser Jet Printer
– Must buy (1) Black Toner Cartridge $43.50
– Yields 3,000
– Total Cost per page: $.015 cents per page – $.019 cents per page
– Printing 3 Coupons per page: $.005 per coupon
* Note you will need to purchase a drum over time. I have had my printer for quite awhile and have not had to make this investment.
Epson Stylus Ink Jet
– Must buy (2) Cartridges Color and Black and White @ $26.50 – $32.00
– Yields 300- 450 pages per cartrige
– Total Cost per page: $.08 cents per page (presuming lowest price, highest prints) – $.11 cents per page (presuming highest price, lowest prints)
– Printing 3 Coupons per page: 2.6 cents per coupon to 4 cents per coupon
So it clearly pays to purchase a laser printer over time. How many coupons would it take to pay for a laser printer? I posted a decent deal on Brother Laser Printer for about $60.00.
Tips for printing coupons
– Try to choose more than one coupon when you are on sites like Coupons.com, Redplum and Smartsource. – Many times I will post a coupon that I think will run out of prints fast. While you are on those sites, print more than 1 coupon – many times printing just one coupon will have a big ad below it.
– Print coupons on coupons.com, Redplum or Smartsource in increments of 3. This will use a full page of coupons.
– If you do print just one coupon from coupons.com, Redplum or Smartsource, you can almost always be sure that it will print at the top. Use a half sheet of paper if your printer allows.
– Print in black and white. Most stores will accept your coupon in black and white instead of color.
– Use the lowest ink saturation possible. Most printers have a “draft” setting that will use much less ink than on the regular setting. If you are unsure if your draft setting coupon will scan – take one to the customer service desk at the store you shop at most. Just explain that you are testing your printer and you want to see if their stores scanners can read the barcode. This will save a hassle at checkout for you and the cashier.
– Stick to printing single coupons over $.50 in value. I rarely see a coupon lower than this, but they do pop up.
– Use programs like Staples Rewards or Staples Easy Saver Rebate to score free paper. Use your rewards to reduce the cost of your ink.
Do you have any suggestion for printing coupons?
nicki says
I have a hp deskjet 1000 j110 series and I have no problem printing coupons but none of my coupons wants to scan at the stores. I use all the legit websites. Does anyone know what could be the problem???My barcodes look good on the paper so I really don’t know what to do and how to make my printer print coupons that scan. Someone please help me I missing good deals :(
Sue says
I’m having trouble getting the online coupons to print. It says they’re printing and nothing comes out of the printer. What would be the best printer to purchase so that it will be easier to print out online coupons?
Natalie says
I buy refurbished ink cartridges for my printer off ebay for a few bucks, which is about $20 cheaper than buying a new one. I also use the same page if Im printing a single coupon, I just flip the page over for the second print and use the bottom side of the back of the same page. So when I print twice I print on the same piece of paper. Hope this helps.
Melissa says
I have a cheap (it came free with our previous laptop) ink jet printer. Once I switched to black only, draft quality I found that the barcodes actually became easier to scan at the stores! The individual lines of the barcodes come out much more clearly separated. I’ve also noticed that coupons.com and bricks coupons print/scan much better than smartsource and coupon network. Is this just me or has anyone else had this problem?
Jessica says
Thanks for this! I always fail to remember that there is a cost for my online coupons no matter how small! I try to print in fast draft with black ink, but sometimes with like my Rite Aid Video Values coupons, they print out weird and don’t show the picture at all. I usually have no problem using them, but sometimes the cashiers look at me very skeptical that I didn’t just photocopy it. I think the online coupon thing is hard because of all the fraud that goes on I often feel like cashiers look at me very skeptical because my coupon is in black and white. It always scans the same, but I hate it when I think people think I am dishonest. Does anyone else ever feel that way?
Lisa says
Thanks for that post. I have wrestled with the cost of ink with my online coupons but I can’t quit the online ones, they are just too good at times!
Shannon says
Oh so true Lisa!
Leslie says
re: replacing the drum
When we had to do this on our Brother laser printer last year, a new model of the same printer was only $19 more than the replacement drum, so we bought the new printer which allows us to print 2-sided (great for everything but printing coupons).
Danielle says
This is a great post! I totally agree with the laser printer being the best route to go. I was using one inkjet printer – a color one that I changed the settings to only print black and a color laser printer, which I also set to print just using black. I was going through inkjet cartridges like crazy! The color laser black toner cartridge lasted a while, but just ran out – and they go for $79.99 each – which I was not too happy about putting out right now. THEN…I scored a FREE HP LaserJet4 Black and White Laser Printer with a new toner cartridge already in it from a good friend of mine!! Woohoo! Now THAT, is a great freebie! Not to mention, you can purchase the remanufactured HP laser toner cartridges for like $30.00 on some of the online websites that my IT guy at work said are just as good as new ones!! So there is another option for you!!!
Anonymous says
Hi, can u print from hp laser printer using your ipad at coupons.com?