Doing without a Printer

[bilmar]

Thinking back over the years, my Inkjet printers have lasted 3-5 years before dying, requiring me to spend $80 to $100 on a new one - typically with '1/4 full starter' cartridges.

When my last printer died,  I had already embraced Mustachianism,  so instead of going to Best Buy and picking up a replacement I asked myself - Do I really need a printer?
Well after a year of doing without I can say Nope!

Last year I only printed 12 pages  - a couple of legal documents and some Amazon return labels.  I know the number because I rode my bike down to the local Office Depot with a thumb drive and had them print the copies - at 15c each. Grand total  for the year $1.80

Sure  it is convenient to a have a printer at home but if you don't use it much then consider having someone else print for you at a fraction of the price of ownership.

Bill

[iris lily]

Last time our printer went kaput, we bought a black and white printer.

I take courses that send me material in digital form, and we are expected to print them  out and bring  them to class. Outside of that, we would probably print about 200 sheets a year.

[Spork]

Last time our printer went kaput, we bought a black and white printer.

I take courses that send me material ismdigital form, and we are expected to print the, out and being them to class. Outside of that, we woild probably print about 200 sheets a year.

Us too.  And a laser at that.  For the price of a full set of color ink cartridges we got a B&W laser printer.  It has a less-than-full amount of toner from the factory... but in a year we still haven't used it all.   And it's SO much faster to print.  It's across the house from me, but by the time I get to it, it's done.

...It may not compare to printing at Office Depot.  But I am a bit of a security paranoid.  I don't want financial or tax papers to pass through a common PC at a retailer.

[CheapScholar]

I realized a few years ago that personal printers are not a good value for my family.  Printers break, require expensive cartridges, print slanted half the time, etc.

Many employers now, mine included, accept the fact that employees print personal things at work.  We were told we can print occasional things for personal use, but weren't given an exact definition of what that is.  If I need to print a one page form for my son's school, or something similar I just print at work.  I rarely have any large print jobs, but like you said, throw it on a jump drive or email it to Office Depot or Fed Ex and pay a quarter here and there.

[cats]

I realized a few years ago that personal printers are not a good value for my family.  Printers break, require expensive cartridges, print slanted half the time, etc.

Many employers now, mine included, accept the fact that employees print personal things at work.  We were told we can print occasional things for personal use, but weren't given an exact definition of what that is.  If I need to print a one page form for my son's school, or something similar I just print at work.  I rarely have any large print jobs, but like you said, throw it on a jump drive or email it to Office Depot or Fed Ex and pay a quarter here and there.

I have not had a personal printer since about 2004, for essentially the reasons stated here.  The few printers I have owned seemed to jam or otherwise screw up on a regular basis.  Then I was in grad school and it was a given that you'd use the department printers for your personal printing (and I didn't feel bad about that given the huge number of journal articles professors seemed to assume we would need to print off...my truly personal printing absolutely paled in comparison).

My current employer is fine with incidental use but hasn't defined what that is.  Last year a notice did go up that printing would now be charged to each department, or something to that effect (I guess maybe before it was coming out of some general company fund??).  I try to be sensible about printing (both work and personal items) in general and not print unless there's a clear benefit to having a hard copy.  We do also use Staples for printing (if we aren't going to be at the office or it's something we really would not want colleagues to find inadvertently), and our library also offers free scanning, which is handy for the few personal things that need scanning each year.  In terms of environmental impact I suspect it is much lower impact to be using communal printers.  Honestly, if my employer wanted to start charging me for personal printing I'd probably accept that over buying my own printer--assuming their rates were similar to what Staples/Office Depot charges it would still be much better value than buying a personal printer.

Our lack of a printer/scanner is something of a recurring sore point with my father...he's mentioned multiple times that you can get a printer/scanner for not too much $$.  He doesn't seem to get that it's not just the money, but that owning a printer/scanner is something of a hassle that we really don't need to deal with right now.

[JLee]

$40-100 can get you an excellent black and white laser printer.  Toner doesn't dry up with lack of use like inkjets do, and toner cartridges print far more pages than inkjet cartridges.

If you only print a few pages a year it's probably worth outsourcing, but I never regretted spending $50 for my printer. I can't remember when I bought it, but I'd guess 5-6 years anyway.

[Spork]

A little cautionary tale:

Many years ago, my moral compass was a little less developed.  I was a computer operator -- back in the days when there were computer operators.  I worked the night shift.  It would get really really boring.  One of the things we used to do to attack our boredom was go waltzing through the print queue and look at things... people's paychecks, personal stuff, etc.  This is not acceptable behavior and at some point I realized it was a Really Bad Thing To Do.

Just know that if you are printing personal or financial stuff and you do not own/maintain your computer, the printer and the network between them: This sort of thing is very possible, maybe even probable.  If you have a work computer that your IT department maintains, all bets are off.  If there is a common network printer (and especially if there is some fighting/policy on how much you can print or if there are back charges for printing) -- it is extremely likely some back end is keeping copies of what gets printed.  This is also likely true if you are going into Kinko's or Office Depot or some place where smart kids are working for a little more than minimum wage and have little else to do.

Yes, printers can be are an enormous ripoff.  $50 for ink is ridiculous.  But putting your SSN or bank information into someone else's hands is a bit of a risk too.

[CheapScholar]

I wouldn't suggest printing things with a SSN on them on a printer you don't own.  However, I can't recall ever making that decision.  We file our taxes online nd have PDFs of our returns.  We have a redacted version that blacks out SSN info if we need to submit a copy to someone, which never happens anyway.  Even when I bought and sold a house 2 years ago I did most things electronically.

[Roots&Wings]

Public library usually offers cheap printing, like 10 cents a page. I finally bought a printer when I found out that my company has $50 annual office supplies reimbursement. When it dies, I'll likely go back to the library for printing.

[stashgrower]

No printer here too. Library or copy shop. Less convenient, but no toner hassles.

[RobFIRE]

Home inkjet printers seem mostly to be poor products. Almost seem designed to fail, ink dries up, more and more DRM etc. going in to the printers to only use their genuine cartridges, cartridges really overpriced, with the printers a loss leader. A family member seems to buy a new one every two or three years, because basically a new printer with a set of starter cartridges is same price as a full set of genuine replacement cartridges (doesn't print enough for it to matter whether starter/half cartridges or full ones). Very silly situation overall.

Earlier this year I was looking at getting a printer for a little eBay side business. My printing needs are otherwise very limited, airline boarding passes, a few forms that must be printed and signed, maybe 50 pages a year. Most of the time I can print the odd page at work (I don't consider that an issue, I'd hope all employers are OK with that, surely not worth nitpicking over that when people take work home etc.). For when I couldn't I was going to get a mono laser printer due to lower running cost, but for what I actually needed I decided that writing address labels by hand and using local library when necessary was better option. I think I've printed about 6 pages at the library in the last 6 months, grand total cost £1.20. So yes, I agree, often not necessary to own a printer, avoids clutter, more environmentally friendly.

If I did have to print more at home e.g. full-time eBay seller or no print service within walking distance, I would have a compact mono laser printer.