Most home users who have a computer or laptop also own a printer. They are versatile devices which can print everything from internet pages, to letters to mini business cards. We often pick up a printer from a retail store or even supermarket with little thought and just grab whichever is on special offer, however, this could cost us dearly.

Apart from the upfront costs of buying a printer, you have to think about the ongoing costs for ink cartridges and yet many people do not even take this into consideration.

They see what they think is a bargain and grab it – it is only when they have run through the starter cartridges of ink and have to buy a new set that they realise that a new set of inks costs far more than the actual machine cost!

When buying a printer you have to take into your calculations how much it will cost to run in the future and how much every page will cost. You do this by taking the price of each cartridge and dividing it by the amount of pages that it can print – this will be in the product specifications.

If you have a black and white printer it is very simple and if you have a colour printer you just need to add up the total cost per page of each cartridge.