Forget Buying Ink Cartridges - Buy Printers!

We've been saying this for years and believe me, it's caused some of my greener friends to look at me like a three-headed pumpkin, but I stand by it.  If you have a simple, no frills ink jet printer and you need an ink cartridge you're looking at $20-$40 for color and black.  That's between $40 and $80 for ink alone.  Now, check Best Buy, CompUSA, Wal-Mart, etc and I bet you can find a brand new printer in that same price range.  Keep the old one handy for a donation, backup, etc.

I know, a bunch of you savvy shoppers are scoffing at buying manufacturer brand cartridges for the prices I mentioned, and I agree.  Sometimes however th particular model you have doesn't have a generic available, or Wal-Greens wont fill it.  You can fill it yourself with a kit but trust me, ruin one counter top, bathroom rug, shirt and family cat and your significant other and/or parents will put a stop to that practice.  Besides, sometimes you just need it NOW!  Wal-Mart almost always has cheap printers...now.

Thanks to Consumerist for having the fortitude to come forward with this wisdom.

PS - Last bit of advise, make sure the printer you are buying has real cartridges.  Sometimes manufacturers (they are all guilty of this sometimes) will put in a 'demo' set of cartridges that might only be good for 20 pages or less.