What does at home coupon printing really "cost" you?

Let me begin by telling you that I love finding a great deal! I'm that guy that takes all the shampoo and conditioner bottles out of hotel rooms I stay in, just so I can reuse it at home.  I've been known to pop into a local hotel that offers the free breakfast. You know the type, right? Waffles, oatmeal, donuts, cinnamon buns...you name it, they have it. The best part is all you have to do is say good morning to the person behind the counter, make small talk and you too can enjoy your free breakfast!

I digress....there is a great phenomenon going on in our country right now. It's called "couponing".  I'm sure you've seen the type. You can pick these people out a mile away, they have a binder that they take with them to go grocery shopping. They have pages and pages of plastic folders, labeled very neatly, with tons and tons of coupons.  Not only do they get these coupons from the Sunday paper, but they also visit sites such as www.couponmom.com to print out coupons.

I'm amazed at the fact that people follow people like @MoneySavingMom, @Coupon_Dad  and @Couponing101 on twitter to save 25 cents here or 50 cents there on all the products they would ever buy.  But have these people really understood how much it costs to print these coupons?

Lets take a look at the average inkjet printer.  You know, the big ugly grey box that just sits at your desk?On average (yeah I know your printer gets more or gets less prints and it's all based on ink coverage on a piece of paper) an inkjet cartridge will get around 500 pages per cartridge.  You can of course buy an XL cartridge that is the same size as the regular cartridge, they just put more ink in it.  Or you can buy specific low cost brands (work just as good as the Originals..more on that later) like Rapid Refill. www.rapidinkandtoner.com

So, if the original black cartridge costs $26.99 and you can get 500 pages from that cartridge, your cost to print that one page coupon is around 5.4 cents (~10 cents per color coupon).  Now that may not seam like a lot, but multiple that over many printed coupons and before you know it, you are out of ink.

All couponers out there, do me a favor and look at the lower cost alternative to over priced ink.  As yourself, "Am I still paying full price for my ink?"  Not only are these other companies less expensive, they also are a green friendly option. Nothing is better then getting a great deal, but helping the environment is a close second for me!