Ideas wanted: Saving money on office supplies
Our dear friend, MM, asked me if I could post on my blog and ask if any of you wise and frugal ladies have input on where to buy affordable and inexpensive office supplies for either your own home use or a home business. She works for a non-profit organization that is looking to cut operating costs as much right now, especially in those little, easily overlooked areas. Comment with any ideas you have. We can all always find ways to be more frugal.
posted by Crystal Paine at 1:40 PM
9 Comments:
The first thing that comes to mind for me is the expensive ink cartridges used in printers. There are many businesses out there that will take your used and empty cartridges and sell you refilled ones for far less than the cost of buying a brand new cartridge. Sorry, I don't have any specific names of businesses but this has become a pretty popular option so there should be something available in your area.
My second idea is exploring the concept of a "paperless office". Rather than printing out documents all the time or filing papers, the documents are scanned and then stored digitally. This reduces the amount of storage space you need and also reduces the amount of paper your office uses. A Google search would probably give you a good idea of what is available. The head office of a company my husband used to work for switched to the paperless system and it was very successful.
Try the United States Postal Service (www.usps.com). They offer a way to send out bulk mailings whether postcards or letters. You can use one of their templates, download it to their site, & it will be printed & mailed within 48 hours (business days). Helps save on paper
I work with our local pregnancy center from time to time, and whenever anyone asks if they are in neeed of anything they ask for gift cards to Office Max.Some people don't like to give actual cash. Also perhaps a printing company would be willing to donate goods if your org. is able to give tax write offs.
-Lela
As far as the USPS goes if you send mail out via Priority Mail you can get free boxes or mailers. This has been wonderful for my company.
Also my husband and I have just started up a non-profit in which we do essentially free websites for certain non-profit agencies.
Something to look into anyway.
The website is: http://www.thebullfrogpress.org
Please forgive any errors you might find on that page, I wear the editor hat (among many other) but I've not been able to make some edits yet.
I really like the idea of a paperless office that another commenter posted about. I'm considering doing that for our two home businesses. I'm swamped in paperwork and it just seems so wasteful and time consuming.
We bought an all in one printer-copier-fax machine from Best Buy. It was a floor model so we got a great deal on it. We've had it for two years now and it's been so useful.
I have gotten my letterhead, business cards, postcards and brochures from Vista Print.
http://www.vistaprint.com
I used to work in a print shop doing accounting and I have found that the products from Vista Print are excellent and at a great cost (250 business cards for shipping cost only!). Once you order from them they consider you a valuable customer and always send great deals your way.
Oh and by the way, check any local print shop for extra paper, notecards and envelopes. They often order more paper supplies than they need for specific projects and then never use them again. They will sell to you at cost or give away for free - especially paper rolls that run on "web" presses.
I order checks and business deposit tickets from Checks In The Mail.
www.citm.com
I got a great deal of office furniture (chairs, bookcases, filing cabinets) from a local business that was closing up shop. We got a lap top for $25 if you can imagine that.
Pens, file folders, paper etc. I get from Walmart.
Staples and Office Depot often have good prices. I know my former boss used these places to get his supplies. Of course, I don't know if this would be enough to cut their costs.
Sommer
Office Depot will give you a free ream of paper or $3 off for every empty ink cartridge you return.
Staples will give you $3 off for the empty ink cartridges.
~christa~
www.homeschoolblogger.com/dartwns
Thanks to Crystal and all! ... taking notes...
I just recently ordered a bunch or standard mailing address labels and CD labels from www.onlinelabels.com for a fraction of what I used to pay, even at Wal-Mart.
They have a wide selection of colors as well as just plain white. They have other labels & stickers available also.
My printer ink is one thing that I use most frequently. In the past I have refilled my own ink cartridges for just pennies compared to buying a new $30 printer cartridge. I ordered the ink from www.encoreink.com, which BTW is a Christian, homeschooling family who owns this small business.
I have recently changed printers and the different cartridges do not refill as easily. This works great on older printers, but doesn't seem to work as efficiently on newer models.
I ordered some refurbished ink cartridges from www.inkgrabber.com last week for half the cost of a brand new one. I haven't tried it yet, but it should work just as well as the brand new one.
Also, if you order from www.onlinelabels.com, they give you a coupon (I think it was 15%, but I can't remember exactly!) for any order at www.inkgrabber.com.
Just a note. Be careful of refillable ink cartridges. Certain printers can be really messed up by the ink. They are sometimes thicker than the ink that the printer is capable of using. I ruined my Cannon printer with those things and it cost more to have it repaired than it was to buy a new printer. It didn't happen right off, but over time the ink bogged down the printer needle to the point that it woudln't move. In the long run, I had to spend more than if I had just bought the ink cartridges that was manufactured for that printer.
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