Sometimes I get giddy when I save just a little bit of money.
The cyan ink in our printer ran dry yesterday. When I went to the store today I had the option of buying name-brand ink for $8 a cartridge or off-brand ink for $6 a cartridge. And the off-brand stuff was on sale at a 50% discount. Of course I bought the off-brand stuff. In fact, I stocked up. I cleared the store out of my type of ink cartridge — eight cartridges of various colors for a total of $24 (a $64 value!).
I found this jackpot at the branch near my office. There’s also a branch a mile from my home. I’m tempted to go clean it out of ink cartridges, too.
Later this afternoon I succumbed to temptation and went into my local comic book shop. I browsed the new titles, and gazed longingly at some books that I wanted. I was strong, though, and left without buying a thing. A triumph of will! (I haven’t bought comics in a long time, actually. My net comic book expense is -$337.97 since mid-May — I sold some volumes on eBay.)
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Sounds like a great find.
However, I do wonder how many people stock up on “great finds”, only to end up with overcrowded homes…which lead them to buy bigger homes or to rent mini storage. Not that I think you’re one of them — it was just something that crossed my mind after I read some stats on how much mini storage is growing.
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You are absolutely right; those small victories do matter. BTW, congrats on resisting the temptation to purchase more comic books.
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I kill myself with stocking up on ‘great finds’. It’s good within limits, but sometimes I really regret cluttering the house with cheap toilet paper buys, for example. I don’t think buying printer ink falls in that category, especially if you use it a lot, but definitely kudos on resisting the “do not need but WANT WANT WANT” category of spending.
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Be careful with that. Ive done a lot of work in computer retail and get a lot of calls that start with “I need a printer that uses x ink. I bought a bunch and now my printer is broken”
and usually clearance on ink means end of life for the product its for. Just some friendly warnings.
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Those are sweet prices on ink cartridges, and it sounds like you do a decent amount of printing in color. I wanted to comment and note that old laser printers can offer a killer bargain on printing, mainly if all you do is black and white jobs. Unlike liquid ink, laser toner cartridges don’t dry out, and last way longer to boot. You can snag an HP Laserjet 6P on ebay for less than $50, and they’re pretty bomb-proof. You can get the toner cartridges online for $18, and they last for thousands of pages.
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Good deals for you on both transactions, ink and publications… Ink and publications… It’s like you’re trading the manifest for the un-manifest, more specifically the yet to be manifest or potential. You have wet multi-colored ink and dry green ink representing the gained potential. Is wealth merely an accumulation of potential? The un-manifest that we can summon on demand to become manifest? Is this too heavy?
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Your addiction to comic books sounds like my addiction to tobacco. I am pouring money out and you may be too. But at least you are not killing yourself.
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Well done.
I used to be really bad with computer games – I couldn’t walk past an EBGames without going in, and couldn’t leave without buying something. The crazy thing is that I seldom play games these days.
For the past six months or so I just walk buy, and if I *do* go in one, I’ve managed to abstain from burning my money. It sounds silly, but I know how tough it can be.
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I love small victories – they add up just like money in savings! Kudos on not buying anything in the comic book store. I’ve discovered that I get a greater buzz now from “not” buying something than I use to get from giving in to what I thought I wanted.
I really enjoy the Frugal for Life blog, she has a quote by Elise Boulding on her front page that absolutely resonates with me.
” Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in havings things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”
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Small victories are great, but don’t we owe ourselves small indulgences from time-to-time? Obviously going out and spending tons of money every week on comics (like I did in my misspent, nerdy youth) is not financially productive, but didn’t you (J.D.) say in the post about your cousin’s passing (my condolences, by the way) that if we have a passion, we should pursue it? Certainly an issue of Spider Man or a graphic novel every six months won’t destroy your progress toward financial independence?
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Oh, J.P., have no fear: I haven’t given up comic books completely. I’ve cut back my spending for a number of reasons. For one — as I’ll explain on Saturday — I’ve been trying to save for our vacation to England. For another, I’ve been trying to prioritize my collecting. I really love old comic strips, so I’ve been redirecting my focus to these. There haven’t been any compilations published in the last few months, but there’s something like 10 or 12 coming in the last half of the year. Finally, I’ve been moving to comics on DVD. These don’t actually get placed under my comics category in Quicken. (I have them classed as DVDs instead.)
Comics are still an indulgence — I’m just trying to exercise moderation.
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J.P. I love small indulgences too, what makes them so sweet is I choose to indulge now and then as oppose to what I use to do which was “more often than not”. I suspect JD can relate to that, that’s why it felt so good for him to walk out of the store without spending money.
I was shopping earlier today for something my daughter did need and I came across several items that before I would have put in my cart without thinking much about it. Now I think carefully before I buy and usually wind up putting the item back because it’s not a need thing, it’s a want thing and usually not a great want at that. When I have those small victories then I don’t mind splurging on something down the road that I really do want.
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As a graphic designer, i have had a lot of experience with printers. in particular Epson printers can be very sensitive to off-brand inks because the pigment… actually dye… is often more ‘coarse’ than Epson-brand inks. More than once, I’ve stopped up a printer and taken hours of cleaning to get it back on track. if you’re brave enough, you can try here: http://dealnews.com/printer-ink/
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I have a Canon MP 780. A very nice family printer/scanner/copier/fax.
I have a tough time shelling out the money for the name brand ink, but I have found that it pays. I try to buy Canon ink on ebay in semi-bulk, so I get a good deal. The non-name brand ink runs out much faster, doesn’t print as well, and dirties the printer in my experience. Just my experience, I am not a printer expert.
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I’m leery of trying to save money by stocking up. I bought five jars of mayonnaise when it was on on sale, and two jars went off sitting on the shelf. I bought a couple boxes of blank cassette tapes way back when, and then my CDRom drive died so I replaced it with a burner and stopped using cassettes. In both cases (and others) my attempt to save money buying in bulk actually cost me money.
On the flip side, I bought 36 pairs of socks five years ago and I haven’t even worn out half of them. As long as my feet don’t get cut off (knock on wood) that was a good buy.
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Careful with ink, it does have expiration dates. But you can go well beyond it if you are not worried about correct colors. We’ve thrown out $100 ink cartridges (large format printer) that were too out of date to use.
Oh and if your cartridge has the print head built in (not ink tank) Staples gives you $3 back for each one.
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I had a small victory yesterday, too. My parents were paying my cell bill while I was in college, and then I took it over. I used to not pay too much attention to my finances, but this year I’m really getting on the ball, and I wondered why I was paying $80-$90 when I hardly ever talk on the phone. So yesterday I found that I had 6800 rollover minutes because I was paying for a 1000-minute plan and using on average 180-300 minutes per month! Whoa. The bills had been going to my parents, and I was just cutting a check (dumb, I know). So I immediately switched to a 400-minute plan–the smallest they have, plus it takes into account the probable extra phone usage that might come with and upcoming wedding. I’m going to save about $30-$40 per month.
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I agree with watching the expiration dates on printer ink cartridges. Store them in a cool place in an airtight container to try to squeeze more life out of them before the sell-by date.
For longevity and economy you can’t beat a good used laser printer. I bought a Lexmark 4039 demo unit in 1996. This was an office printer at the time, not a personal printer. I’ve used it ever since. I’m only on my second toner cartridge and I expect to get more than 10,000 pages out of that cartridge. Since I bought a bunch of A4 (European standard, not quite letter-size) paper for $1 per ream, my cost per page is less than half a cent.
If I had to buy something else today, I’d look for a mid-range HP office printer.
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Great deal. I love deals. However, it’s worth be careful when you stock up. I have fallen victim to going overboard with stocking up and then losing money because I end up not using the extra items. For example, I’ve stocked up on things like cartridges and then switched forms of technology or had the printer (or other tech item) break. Or I’ll find a pair of shoes that I love and I’ll get a second pair when they go on sale. By the time my first pair wears out, I no longer love them and the second pair sits in my closet. Or I stock up on a food item, and then I get totally sick of that food item and the extra sits in my cupboard for ages.
So, maybe think twice about visiting that second office store!
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Great idea, but I’d be careful on cleaning out the whole town. I ordered 5 off-brand cartridges for a cheap-o Canon printer and 3 dried out after a year and a half maybe?
My favorite small victory: dumpster diving Fridays for pre-made refrigerated gourmet burritos on their sell-by date. Yay Portland!
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I used to support the supply side for printers. The cheapest way is black & white laser. I have an old brother laser from 2003. If I wanted color, I would probably go ink-jet, but the laser would remain the default printer to keep costs down.
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I have had serious problems using non-OEM ink in my HP printer. I too once found a great deal online with refurbished cartridges and then they didn’t work at all. That was $100 out the window. I think HP puts chips in certain ink cartdiges to make sure only their ink will work. If you are buying refurbished ink I’d advise checking the return policy, so if it doesn’t work with your printer you are not left holding the bag.
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Feed your addiction to comics and graphic novels for free at the library
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