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This all depends on your perspective. Take a look at what MS had to say: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive ... sults.aspx
And this food for thought: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/09 ... s_testing/

Refill ink at Costco, office supply store? Really?

Ink's cheaper on Ebay or Amazon in BULK..
Ebay has the cheapest Remanufactured laser printer toner that I've ever seen (this is the one you want to leave to the pro's)

I don't use much ink but when I run out used to cost $$$$. Perhaps need to go eBay and look again but prices weren't that good. Maybe not looking at bulk...how many is bulk? Maybe at most, I'd buy 10 at a time.

Check again, even if your buying remanufactured cartridges they are up to 10x cheaper than RETAIL and bulk oem inks can be had as low as $12 for 8oz of ink which should last a printer freak MONTHS (probably the cartridges w/ sponges will die before the ink is gone) SO, eventually you need to buy both!. The hp 96 yields ~ 500 copies and the hp 45 about 950 copies (the printers that use the hp 45 cartridge are workhorses, they almost never die and have NO sponge, you fill an ink port from the bottom and use a socket set screw to seal the plug hole after you push a ball bearing through + fill-- been doing that since 2002, maybe 9 total cartridges and 2 cases of paper later-- yeah cases not reams).

BTW, for bulk ink, 8 or 16oz is probably your best vale unless your buying for an office, then splurge for 32oz. 64+ is for commercial printing companies. It's good to use the ink up within 3 years.. not that there's an official best buy date. I won't spam you with ebay links, but I have 2-3 preferred sellers of ink/cartridges on ebay.. some also sell on amazon (but apparently charge more there). It's easy to figure out who they are.

There is another side to this story.

I have several printers. So some printers don't get used very often.

So when I buy the off brand ink, quite often the cartridge dries up before I am able to use it. So it's throw it away and install another one.

But if I install the higher priced brand name cartridges, they last for years, and I don't experience the time wasted trying to get the printer to print properly. When I look at the overall prices, in this case it's cheaper to purchase the brand name cartridges.

If I install off brand cartridges in the printer that I use the most, the off brand cartridges are consumed in a reasonable time period and are cheaper.

There are things you can do to avoid cartridges from drying up and re-initializing them once they have been out of use for a while (such as put in a plastic baggie w/ a wet sponge & seal it up). One important thing is to have the cartridge topped off before storage. Another is taking the cartridge out and putting it in a holder that usually comes with remanufactured cartridges instead of leaving it in the printer. You can also search online for cleaning/priming methods for getting dried up cartridges to work properly again. I've not seen any difference in remanufactured cartridges (HP) being of any shorter lifespan. BTW, when you START using a cartridge it's usually best to utilize one capacity's worth of ink (varies btw 10 - 30ml of ink) within 1 year after starting it, and refilling the cartridge-- otherwise your just wasting your money on the cartridge in the first place. This is typically 120 - 600 sheets of paper printed depending on cartridge capacity.

Also, compare retail @ $30 per cartridge w/ reman. cartridge it's 4:1, 5:1, upto 10:1 on price. Buy in bulk and you still come out ahead. Some ebay merchants have a no-hassle 1-year warranty on cartridges. One was defective in second to last lot & they replaced it no problem.

I understand you have to factor in how much your time is worth to fiddle with a dried up cartridge, but this thread is about being frugal. It's worth about 15 mins of time to save a cartridge that's dried up even if that attempt is ultimately unsuccessful, then you can w/ a good environmental conscience move on to the next cartridge (or within warranty request a new one).

cut the cord
http://www.playon.tv

http://www.ratekick.com

cut the cord
http://www.playon.tv

Pretty interesting stuff. Reading up. http://www.playon.tv/faq

I have PlayOn (and also their PlayLater). It's nice but I would not want to rely on it for cord-cutting. Most important, it's standard-definition (480p) only.

You can also get your local OTA channels w/ Filmon.com free
Not always 100% uptime but pretty good. XBMC + plugins for EVERYTHING else.