I got a lot of thoughts run around in my head this week and my inbox is filling up and needs to be cleaned. Today you are the recipient of my random thoughts and my inbox purging. Enjoy!
I am a huge Consumerist fan, I do occasionally get tired of the "I got shafted" posts and would like to see more "over and above" posts about companies, but recently I read a post that I disagreed with greatly. The post Buy A New Printer When You Run Out Of Ink was a bad idea and I think the comments are in agreement that this is a stupid idea.
Their theory is thus: "If you're sick of the high cost of toner, and don't want to deal with messy refill kits or off-brand versions, here's a great way to save cash and help struggling manufacturers at the same time: Just buy a new printer every time you run low on ink. Sure, you'll have a house full of printers in no time, but you can always donate those to Goodwill, or to the local landfill."
Environmentally unsound: A horrible idea as it adds unnecessarily to the landfills of America or like one commenter said, "I suppose, then, that we ship our old printers to Nigeria or China to let the children there burn them to sort out what tiny bits of metal may be in there for the recyclers?"
Financially unsound: Though you may save on ink by getting a new printer each time and even get a donation tax credit for donating the printer, a financially sound idea is to keep what you have and make it work for as cheap as possible. Besides that just walking around in a couple retail stores I found only one printer that was near $40, all the rest were more and my ink cartridges are $20 each, not a good value at all.
A Declutterers nightmare: Someone who has a hard time getting rid of stuff or procrastinates taking their donations in is going to have a mess on their hands. I buy about 12 cartridges a year, can you imagine 12 printers a year stacked up in your home?
I liked the Tips for Your Financial Future that CIC has put together. Some good advice that needs to be remembered - "Ignore the naysayers. Many will question your methods and ask why. The bottom line is that it really doesn't matter what others think or say. It's your underlying values and reasons for the goal that make the difference."
Frugal Village recently posted some responses to random questions - I enjoyed her response to, "What types of meals would you make if you were low on cash?"
I would have to include tuna and macaroni in that list, I used to eat a lot of that.
NYC is running an Anti-Soda drinking spot to get people to realize just what they are tossing down their throats - besides the chemicals (You have been warned it is very gross)
I really enjoyed Trent's post that Most of Us Have Never Experienced a True Economic Meltdown - Which I agree with and had written about that through thick and thin we will survive this recession to write our own book of experiences
My goal is to do twice as much charity work next year as I did this year and when i came across Mint's post on Charity, I was happy to see that we Americans do quite a bit but that doesn't seem to be the whole picture.
And in honor of the holiday season and preparing for the gift or two that you may be regifting, The Daily Green offers advice on How to regift (and get away with it)
One way to save money on ink refills and paper--quit printing! You know how when you're shopping online and a page appears "Print this receipt for your records"? You don't actually have to print it out on your printer. Instead click Print > Adobe PDF and make a PDF of it instead. Save it to a folder on your hard drive. If you ever really need a printed copy of the receipt (e.g., for returns) you can print it. I am a technical writer and over the years have had to force myself to go electronic and stop wasting trees (and ink), but if I can do it, so can you.
I totally agree with techwriter on this. I do exactly what she says, and to ensure that I don't lose any reciepts I upload them to google docs for safe keeping! I have 3 printers in my house and have cut down printing to about 5 pages per month (mostly pages that I must give to other people).
Oh, I'll have to tell my sister about the receipts thing! She was audited last year and the ink on most her receipts was faded! Not good!
I mean she should scan in her "paper" receipts. The electronic ones I keep in my email.