Reader Jamear and some readers have formed a Coupon Train through the LRWC Community Forums. Through the forming of their Coupon Train, Jamear wound up with a How-to on Couponing Printing and was nice enough to pass it along so that all of us could benefit from it.
So, here is Jamear’s Coupon Printing Tips:
1. Set your printer to draft (grayscale) printing. (Check your manual or Google it.) I created a new printing “profile” called Coupons.
2. Enable print preview (usually you have to check a box). This way, you can see the coupons BEFORE they print, which comes in handy for tip #3.
3. Use half and third sheets for coupons that print with ads/recipes. (This doesn’t work for coupons that print at the bottom third; I’m still trying to figure this one out.)
4. Always double-print on the BACK. If two coupons print on the top two-thirds and you want to print another on the bottom third, print on the back so that, if the coupon ends up overlapping/overprinting/otherwise screwing up, you won’t lose BOTH coupons, you’ll just have to pick one.
5. Buy the XL ink cartridge, if available for your model. It really does save money.
6. Buy your ink at Staples. Not only do they have competitive prices, they also run coupons sometimes for 10 or 20% off your purchase (except HP ink). You get $2 for each empty ink cartridge you bring in, AND you get 10% cash back on ink and paper purchases when you sign up for their FREE Staples Rewards program (which goes fully on-line March 1st, so you get your money back faster).
7. Consider buying a different printer. I have been HP-loyal for years but after I started couponing, I realized my printer was devouring ink. Two or three cartridges a month @$20 a pop was not working for me. So I switched to a Canon Pixma at the beginning of this month (which I got for a steal from Lenovo for $60 SHIPPED through Ebates) and I’m still using the SAME cartridge. I only get two newspapers so all my other coupons come from printing. I have two laptops so I print a ginormous amount of coupons. (Did I mention my new printer’s wireless?) And the cartridge I’m using is the one that came with the printer and it’s not even an XL.
8. Get a “dummy” email address and Gmail. I have a personal account and one for coupons/offers/grocery store promos. I recommend Gmail because they have a nifty feature that up and appeared out of nowhere: When I log into one Gmail account, there’s a drop-down menu on the top right that allows me to switch to my other Gmail account, without having to log in and out. And because I use Google Chrome and Google Reader, I get all these little icons that let me know when I’ve got new mail and new posts from LRWC
Thanks Jamear for sharing this great information and for taking the time to present it to us.
Cindy Livesey is the force behind Living Rich With Coupons which provides its readers with all the resources they need to shop smart so they can get life’s luxuries for a lot less. Her family of 5 has saved over $11,000 a year in groceries. And you can too.
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Does anyone have issues with coupons scanning in draft? Mine come out as if I am almost out of ink.
Thanks for the helpful tips. Can you use the same email but on two different laptops and get the same coupons??
I use two emails: a gmail one and a yahoo one that I’ve had forever.
These tips are great! Thanks so much for sharing. Maybe someone also has some good ideas on saving money on that other fluid that is getting very costly…gas!
Thanks for the tips! Can I offer another one? In late summer and the beginning of the school year (August-ish here in So Cal) I was noticing that the office supply stores had paper for SUPER cheap. I purchased about 10 reams (500 sheets) of paper and the most I paid for any one ream was $1. I did a lot of rebates, but most of those reams came out to $0.01 each!! I went to all 3 office supply stores in my area (Staples, Office Max and Office Depot) and stocked up on paper and other supplies. Also, I refill my ink cartridges at my local Costco. Costs me about $30 for 4 cartridges instead of $100 and they last almost as long as brand new ones.
I just found about the Staples easy rebates on paper; I’m sure there’s and OM and OD nearby. I haven’t tried ink refilling yet, as my old HP printer was incompatible with the machine at Walgreens (although they had the cartridge # listed on their site, the ink said “single use only” so they wouldn’t fill it). Has anyone tried those DIY refill kits?
I started the DIY kits a month ago and LOVE it! I imagine I will be able to use the kit for about six months (maybe more?) and a kit was less than a single black ink cartridge on sale at staples (but evens out with shipping fees). That’s cutting my ink costs down to 1/6 of what it was before. And using an HP printer too (which I didn’t realize used more ink than others).
what printer do u have? i got my printer from costco – a dell…hubby says the ink is one time use:( love the printer tho…
I have a Dell 946 that I bought from Dell refurbished a few years ago- one of those all in one things. The ink says “Intended for one use only”, but we refill it at Costco no problem
i didn’t know costco refilled ink…will have to take a look around my area (long island). thanx.
I am in Southern California and they do it at the 1 hour photo lab. Costs anywhere from $7-$10 and takes about an hour.
I have a qestion on #2/3. I’m assuming this works only on the .pdf Qs (?). Can you print preview for bricks, smartsource, coupons.com, couponnetwork & target.com Qs as well?
As long as your printer is set up for print preview, it works on EVERYTHING — MS Word, emails, coupons, anything that you print goes through the preview first; you have to give the printer the ok to print the job.
FAB!! Had NO clue..thanks so much.
Yes, Jamear has a very good point about the cost of ink cartridges. I save a lot of money for anything I print – coupons or anything else – by refilling my own cartridges at less than one tenth the cost of buying new ones. HP black cartridges can usually be refilled with no trouble, but color cartridges often have clogged ink channels when they are depleted of ink. They can often be unclogged by immersing them for about 15 minutes or more in a half inch of water made very hot (near boiling) on the stove, and then letting them cool down while still in the water, or transferring them to a half inch immersion in cold water for about 5 minutes. A good source of refill ink and supplies is ourink.com, telephone 800-887-1882. They can also give you helpful advice on filling procedures. Printed instructions are included in refill kits.
I just recently got a MAC and a new HP printer – can’t seem to print on fast draft with this one – not sure if it is a model thing or a MAC thing – any ideas?
I don’t have a Mac but I searched a few sites and someone came up with an answer, about halfway down the forum:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=358428
When you select print on the MAC, click copies & pages to get the drop down menu. Then select paper type/quality. For quality select fast draft. If you want black only, select grayscale on the color box. Hope this works for you.
thanks… will give this a try… is there a way to do the preview as mentioned.. will have to look around… thanks for all your help.
How would that work with a Mac? I would love
to save money on ink & paper. Help!
How do you set up double print?
The way coupon printers work, I’m not sure you can. Double-printing from the printer options would create a copy of the coupons you’ve printed, instead of generating new coupons. The best way I’ve found is to hit the back button on your browser window — it resends the coupon info to your printer.
Thanks so much! HOpefully this will save on ink. I have a Kodak 5500 that I love and ink is about 15.00 for XL black and 18.00 for color.
My question is I have heard some stores do not accept black and white coupons for “fraud” reasons. Have you heard or experienced this?
I’ve never once had a problem with IPs. As long as it scans, I can’t imagine them giving you a hard time.
most coupons have a “water mark” that proves that they are real coupons, even if you print in black and white that will still show up. that doesn’t mean that someone won’t reject it if they are in the mood, but the coupons are valid
is it cheaper just printing in blk?
Printing in draft mode on my printer also prints in greyscale (black cartridge only) so I save money since I’m not using color.
I switched to refilling my own ink last month and OMG it saves soooo much $$$$! It’s easy to do too. I just googled and found a place online. For a kit to refill black ink and another to refill color ink it was the same price as buying a pair of ink cartridges on sale at staples. But the kits will refill many many times. I’ve refilled the black twice now and have barely made a dent in the refill kit. I used to hem and haw over printing due to cost and would then miss out on deals with coupons I never printed. Now I don’t have that issue either.
I have a Lexmark 5400 series 3-in-1 printer. I can’t figure out how to set it to “print preview”, which sounds like a great idea to know if it’s ok to only use 1/2 sheet of paper and not have to waste a bunch of ink on ads or recipes that print out with coupons (one of my BIGGEST pet peeves!!!). If anyone else has this kind of printer and knows if there is a “print preview” option, please help me!
I wound my way around some tech sites and found this:
http://www.lexmark.com/publications/pdfs/2007/5400/v3422842_en.pdf
Check page 101, “Using the Print Dialog”: according to the photo, there’s a button at the bottom of your print dialog box labeled ‘preview’. HTH
Thanks so much for trying to help! Unfortunately, there is no print preview button that I can find on my printer model X5410 “print properties” options to set to show coupons such as bricks and coupons.com. The photo that is shown is for Mac OS, not windows. Just my luck, I guess
I will not give up lol
http://images.lexmark.com/publications/pdfs/2007/5400/v3421438_en.pdf
For some reason, I thought you had a Mac.
Anyways, on page 38 of the above manual, there is a picture of the print dialog box. If yours looks like this, open the “Options” drop-down menu. Take a screen shot (if you don’t mind) and email it to me: jamjax812@gmail.com
I started ordering my ink cartridges from Ebay about a year ago. I have an HP printer and I always order the refurbished cartridges.They cost about $4-$5 a cartridge and last about 2 months and I print a LOT of coupons. I also did the Staples Easy rebate last month and purchased 40 reams of paper for $3…..that should last a few years…
Brother’s toner cartridges have a sensor built into them; OppressedPrinterUser found that covering the sensor with a small piece of dark electrical tape tricked the printer into thinking he’d installed a new cartridge. I followed his instructions, and my printer began to work. At least eight months have passed. I’ve printed hundreds of pages since, and the text still hasn’t begun to fade. On FixYourOwnPrinter.com, many Brother owners have written in to thank OppressedPrinterUser for his hack. One guy says that after covering the sensor, he printed 1,800 more pages before his toner finally ran out.
i’m wondering if my dell cartridge can be hacked that way;) will have to ask hubby…
Karen, you should definitely try that!!!
which pixma model do you have?
MP495
FYI: Draft printing looks like photocopies. I’ve been accused of photocopying coupons a few times when I printed them in draft mode. Sometimes, the cashiers/managers accepted them after I pointed out the unique ids on each coupon. Sometimes even then they refuse to accept them. For me it isn’t worth the hassle so I print in color but at the lightest possible settings.
Since I rarely print in color, I use an HP laser printer (B&W). It cost less than $100 after a rebate at Staples. Toner cartridges are more expensive ($50-$75) but they last me at least 6 months. I get my paper at Staples too. It usually costs around $1 after rebates.
I’ve never had SR challenge my B&W coupons. It usually says something like “Retailer: This coupon may appear in color or black & white” right on the printed coupon.
I could not be any more excited about #8! I had no idea you could sign into more than one Gmail account at a time. I get so annoyed that I have to log in and out all the time to switch. I had to search for directions on setup, because something had to be changed in my settings. Works great! http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/access-two-gmail-accounts-at-once-in.html
Are the Staples Easy rebates still available for purchasing paper? If so, does anyone have a link? Thanks.
I looked around their site and this was the best I could find:
http://www.staples.com/Staples-Copy-Paper-Select-8-1-2-x-11-Case/product_897802
but check back on Sunday (and check their ad) because Staples does paper deals pretty often.
Thank you.
I have two empty HP cartridges for my Officejet 7300. I would like to try and refill them at my local Walgreens and see if they work for the price. Has anyone have good printing results by refilling at Walgreens? Can I use a Register Rewards to pay for the refill or is it not accepted for such?