Yappy honey, ink is the food of the manufacturer! I never refill my printers! These days, the market is driven down, so I buy the $35 ones and when the ink runs out, I donate the printer to the schools, take the tax deduction, and get a new printer. That way, I always have the newest tech and a clean printer. I also print a lot more in plain black than color, using a "draft" setting, your practice sheets come out in a lighter grey, thus, using less ink for just seeing how it looks.

For photos, I pop them on the jump drive and print them at a kiosk printer station someplace like Target, Staples or Walgreens. The ink and the photo paper are the money eaters. For important paper prints, it's Kinko's to the rescue. But, all in all, the cheapy printers do perfectly well for me. I'm currently on an HP 3930 that I got on sale for $30. The ink to refill it is $40! Why on earth would I feed that greed machine?

If you're in the habit of printing your letterhead in color and your letter body both at once, knock it off! Print your letterhead at Kinko's on the high-tech color copier or have it printed professionally, it's actually cheaper.