5 Ways to Save Money at Your Office

5 Ways to Save Money at the Office

Office supplies and the office in general can quickly become just another task that can get in the way of dealing with everyday tasks. On top of that, the office supply budget can become viewed more on the needs list then the wants list, thus causing the person in charge of office supplies to neglect searching for great prices and cost saving alternatives. The problem that may come when searching for office supplies are that there are many resellers offering what appear to be similar items, at similar prices, and when time is a crunch, most often someone from the office will have to be rushed out to the local office supply store to pick up a replacement toner cartridge or a ream of paper. With some simple planning and intuitiveness, an office can save money and be more prepared with less down time and more productivity.

1. Compatible Ink Cartridges & Compatible Toner Cartridges

If you have tried to save money at all in your office environment, no doubt have you come across the compatible ink cartridges and compatible toner cartridges, and probably even the refills. Compatible ink and toner cartridges can be a great way to save money over the expensive Genuine OEM cartridges that printer manufacturer’s offer. Generally compatible or remanufactured cartridges can save you 50% or more compared to the OEM printer cartridges. It is important though to not always look for the best deal when buying generic cartridges. Many people who purchase the cheapest cartridges possible on sites such as Ebay, have problems with the cartridges not performing like they should, with toner lines through the pages or ink not printing correctly on the pages. The best way to save money is by finding a reputable reseller of compatible and or remanufactured cartridges and pay just a little bit for the quality assurance. For example, online retailers such as Professor Ink offer a 12 month warranty on all products sold through them.

2. Recycle paper that has only been printed on one side

The next way to save money in your office is to use your own method of recycling paper. Depending on the office type, you could either print a lot of pages that are used for internal use only, for a short period of time, or you could print paper and have it used for clients use. For the first case, many companies will just print on one side of the page, and then throw the paper away. The best way to save money is to start a pile that has all of the printed sides of paper facing down, and then once you have a decent size stack left, insert them into your printer, so that the other side of the page can then be printed on. If used effectively, this method could essential cut your paper usage in half.

3. Turn off computers or put in Stand-By mode when you leave for the day

The next way to save money at the office is to simply turn off your computer or put it into stand-by mode at the end of the day. This can be a simple habit to get into and can save the company money on utility costs since less power will be used. Turning off the monitor is a good start, but by turning the computer off, or by putting it in stand-by mode will save even more electricity.

4. Replace your old printer

The next tip is to analyze how often you use your printer, and to examine the cost the consumables, such as printer ink and toner cartridges. One example could be that if you are using an inkjet printer, most of the cartridges will only print between a few hundred pages before needing to be replaced. If your office does much printing at all, you should consider upgrading to a laser printer. Printers such as the HP Laserjet 10150 use the HP Q2612A toner cartridge which an OEM cartridge from HP would cost about $69. Professor Ink offers the compatible version of the HP Q2612A for only $21.99, and the cartridge is estimate to print about 2,000 pages, as opposed to inkjet cartridges which print about 200. Doing some simply math and we find out that with the compatible HP Q2612A toner cartridge, the price per page is only $0.01, where the ink cartridge price per page is about $0.06. So in this case, the inkjet cartridge price is almost 6 times more expensive then the laser printer with a toner cartridge.

5. Buy office supplies in bulk

The final tip is to consider purchasing office supplies in bulk. Generally purchasing anything in bulk will always save money. Consider purchasing paper, toner cartridges, ink pens, sticky note pads, and even computer systems in bulk to save additional money.

After utilizing some or all of these 5 ways to save money at the office, you should be well on your way to doing your part to help the company out. Make sure to let the boss know if your achievements as well, hey maybe you will get a raise.