This post was sponsored by Staples. Words, ideas, and recommendations are mine. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

Emails frequently pop into my inbox with questions like:

• What printer do you have and recommend?
• Do you have any tips for saving money on printing?
• How do you print it all? Doesn’t it get expensive?
• Do you really print it all?

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I have a thing for printables. Along with creating the printables comes the inevitable – you have to print them out somehow. Our printer has gotten nothing if short of an amazing workout over the years. While ink can get pricey, there are a few ways that we try to save money on printing.

Printing Tips 101

Ink is never cheap, but printing is something we all end up doing. Here are a few ways that we’ve saved some money over the years. If you have a tip to add, please be sure to leave a comment below and share – I’ll add them to the list as I can!

• Invest in a good printer. Believe me, I’ve been sucked into what seemed like a great deal, only to have a printer seemingly inhale the ink right out of the cartridges and not print well. You might pay a little more up front, but in the long run having a printer that lasts and does a good job is worth it!
• Use the draft option when printing. Rarely do I use the best print option. The draft mode has always done a great job for us.
• Print double sided – you’ll save a bit on paper too! Every little bit helps!
• Paper matters. Pay attention to the type you buy. Super thin paper may be cheaper, but sometimes it doesn’t do the best printing. We use a paper with a bit of a heavier weight so it lasts longer for many of our printable projects.
• Watch for sales. Ink does go on sale and buying it in bulk can be cheaper too!
• Take advantage of the Staples Easy Rebates program – you can get money back with the click of a button and don’t even have to mail something in!
• Recycle used cartridges for a rebate. Take advantage of refilling ink cartridges or turning in used cartridges for recycling and a rebate.

You don’t have to print every page of a document. Print what you need and save ink and paper that way. Sometimes I forget and just hit ‘print all’, but there are frequently pages that we don’t use in printables, and it’s ok to be choosey.

Our Printer Choice

For the past six years we’ve used an HP Officejet All-in-One printer, but with our move two years ago we had a little issue. Our printer wasn’t wireless and the only router we could plug in to was in our laundry room above the dryer. The constant rocking from the washer/dryer combo on the printer *may* have taken its toll on the poor printer (through no fault of its own).

We LOVED our HP All-in-One and it honestly did great on ink and print quality, so we took a trip to Staples to check out some of the updated HP printers – especially the wireless ones with eprinting capability. We purchased our last printer there and also a few of our laptops, and they have always been such a huge help.

There were a few features that we wanted to have in our new printer:

• color and b/w printing
• wifi networking {no cords to hook up to our network}
• ePrinting {so we can print from our iPad or phone}
• 2 sided printing
• print/copy/scan/fax capabilities
• ability to hold a lot of paper {because I hate to refill it}
• USB card input

The printer that we finally decided on was the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus All-in-One Printer (currently $199). There are actually two different versions of this printer – the one we picked or the HP Officejet Pro 8600 with a smaller touchescren (currently $149). Essentially the HP 8600 was an updated version of the printer that we already had and loved – and it has been a great addition to our house.

A few things that I love about our HP 8600:

• ePrinting ROCKS! Being able to quickly print a missing worksheet via a pdf file from my iPad is rather handy.
• We’re wireless – oh, how I wish we had done this years ago. The printer is now stored in our homeschool room, so no more running to the laundry room or having our printer get ravaged by crazy dryer.
• Printing on fast draft – this has been a HUGE $ saver for us on ink costs. Most of the things I print are done via the fast draft mode {check your printer settings}
• Have I mentioned the wireless and eprinting? Yeah – loving that for sure. And I can email something to the printer if I’m at a friend’s house and it will be at home waiting for me. How nice is that?

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it and received no other compensation. We honestly had planned to purchase this HP printer because we love HP and Staples. All opinions expressed in this review are my personal and honest opinions.