Investing in a good quality printer could end up saving you loads of money in the long run. When considering which printer to buy, think about the features you want it to have, the cost of the printer itself and most importantly, how much it will cost to run.
The general rule of thumb is: the more a printer costs initially, the cheaper its ink tends to be (weird one, we know). There are printers out there for less than £30 – £40, but that’s often a ploy to lure you into paying that price again whenever you have to stock up on ink.
We’ve reviewed some of the best value printers on the market, and share a few secrets to help cut the cost of student printing – both at home and at uni.
7 ways to save money on printing at home
Go to printer ink refill shops
Once the printer is yours, one money-saving print solution is to locate your nearest ink-refill centre. Yup, printer ink has become such a lucrative business that they even have shops specialising solely in refilling your cartridges.
Alternatively, use discount ink websites such as Cartridge People, which have ink for all major brands and are cheap and easy to use.
These refill shops can often slash your ink costs, meaning you might be able to print off all those homemade Christmas cards after all.
The printer manufacturer might try and tell you only to buy official ink cartridges or toners (obviously they would!), or even that their cartridges can’t be refilled. This isn’t usually the case, so take along a few empties to a refill shop to get their theories tested.
In fact, some printer companies may even tell you that your warranty will be voided if you don’t use their official cartridges. This is a lie.
According to the law, electrical manufacturers can’t be anti-competitive in their warranties. We won’t go into the legal specifics, but in this case, it basically means that they can’t stop you from buying compatible cartridges/toner from other companies.
As long as your printer is still within the warranty period, the manufacturer will have to prove that using unofficial cartridges/toners caused the fault – otherwise, they have to help.
Sell old printer cartridges online
If you’re not quite brave enough to refill your old cartridges, or you end up with a surplus, you can always trade in your empties for cash. It’s a great way to make money from recycling.
Some sites make a living out of selling refilled cartridges, so they’re more than happy to take them off your hands. If you email them and tell them what you have, they’ll send you a quote and a Freepost envelope to send them in. Once they’ve received your cartridges, you’ll get a cheque in the post.
Buy cheap printer paper in bulk
Once your printer ink is sorted, consider your paper supply!
Admittedly, there’s something undeniably satisfying about splashing out on thicker, higher-quality paper to make your dissertation look longer – but please resist.
Lecturers won’t be interested in seeing how much of your Student Loan has contributed towards deforestation.
If you really want to buy more expensive paper, club together with your coursemates and split the cost of a ream – you’ll probably never get through the whole thing, anyway. As you’d expect, you can buy supplies of paper online.
Buy a printer with your housemates to share the costs
If buying a printer for yourself simply isn’t an option, talk to other people in your flat or halls. If they’re savvy savers like you, they might be willing to split the cost and buy a printer for the whole flat to use. Going forward, you’ll also save on ink and paper costs.
The only problem comes at the end of the year when you’re all fighting about who gets to take the printer home – if the printer makes it to the end after coughing up numerous dissertations, of course.
Make your document smaller
Many students forget that there are also savings to be had before anything is even sent to the printer.
If you have an irritating three lines taking up a second page, check out the ‘shrink to fit‘ option in your word processor. You can fit more text on a page by decreasing margin width, reducing text size by just one or two points, and minimising line spacing. Just make sure it’s still readable!
Get savvy with spreadsheets. It’s easy to find yourself with 20 pages spilling out of the printer when you thought you were printing off a small Excel document. Be sure to highlight the cells you need to print and right-click to print only those selected.
Better still, hit ‘print screen’ on your keyboard and paste the resulting image into a document. Then crop or change the image as you like.
Print in draft mode
Setting up your printer software and word processor with economy budget options is well worth doing, so play around with your printer settings. Your printer will have different modes to change the printing speed and how much ink it uses.
If you’re just printing notes for uni, you don’t need to use the premium setting for the highest-quality print. The draft mode uses the least amount of ink and will save you money, but it may not be suitable for printing out coursework or your CV. Just check that it’s still readable.
Only print the pages you need. Specifying pages two to five when that’s all you need will save you from throwing pages away.
And finally, keep an eye on the printer queue! Don’t get too impatient and click-happy if the first print doesn’t run. Chances are, once the printer’s sorted itself out it’ll start printing off everything in the backlog, and it can be difficult to cancel.
Consider whether you need to print at all
Of course, the best way to save money on printing is to not print at all. Before buying a printer or heading to the nearest print shop, consider whether you really need to print these documents. Not only will you cut the cost, but it’s also a way to reduce your carbon footprint.
You can always take notes on your laptop or tablet (if you have one) instead. And you may also be able to hand in your essays electronically – which saves you the hassle of having to print them in the first place!
