New ink cartridges for your computer printer can be very expensive. The cartridge for my printer costs about $35. Refilling your printer ink cartridge rather than buying a new cartridge saves you quite a bit of money. You can buy a refill kit for about $10 depending on what type of printer you have. I haven’t used a refill kit but I’ve had friends that have used them successfully.
The other option is to have a store refill the cartridge for you. I recently had my printer ink cartridge refilled at Walgreens and was pleased with the process. The cost is $10 for black ink and $15 for black ink. I had a coupon for $3 off ink refills plus a $5 off $20 purchase coupon so I effectively had the cartridge refilled for $2. A $33 savings over buying a new one. It took a half hour for the cartridge to be refilled. When I got home I just popped it back in the printer and it printed great with no problems.
I’m sure there are other stores that refill ink cartridges but you probably can’t get a better deal than at Walgreens. They frequently have coupons, register rewards, and free after rebate items that can allow you to buy stuff for free or even make a little money. Check out Money Saving Mom for details on how to get the best deals. I’m too lazy to come up with my own scenarios but picking the best ones off her site works well for me. Even if you don’t want to bother with the deals you can save a lot of money by having your printer ink cartridge refilled.
I have used a refill kit that I picked up at Staples for a black ink jet printer. I was able to refill the cartridge, plug the hole (you have to drill a small hole in it) and get it working again pretty quickly.
The kit cost about $15 but that included 3 vials of ink. A refill used a little over half of a vial. I expect to get about 5 refills out of it. Since a black ink cartridge normally costs me about $19 we will save about $80.
Make sure you search for coupons before you buy anything online. Chances are, you can save a few dollars off or get the shipping fees waived