Simply XSBaggage

Nifty Thrifty Thursday: Cheap Ink

About two years ago I was shopping online for ink cartridges for my printer, trying to find the best price. While browsing around I found a site that also offered ink refill kits. I'd never heard of them before so I started doing a little research and when I realized how much money I could save by refilling my own cartridges I decided to try it.

The average price for a NEW black cartridge for my printer is $15.00. The price for a refill kit with enough ink to refill it sixteen times is $26.55. Let me do the math for you. That's a savings of $213.45 people!! Or a cost of about $1.66 each time I refill. I'd say that's worth the five minutes it takes me to refill a cartridge, wouldn't you? Not to mention the gas savings when I'm in a panic because my printer just ran out of ink and I need to print invoices for orders going out that day and I drive around frantically trying to find a store that stocks my cartridges. Not that I've ever done that, but just sayin'. *wink.

Now, let me show you just how easy it is to do this. Here's what you get when you order, it all comes in a nice little plastic box, (with instructions), so you can keep everything together:

Take the cartridge out of the printer being careful not to touch this copper strip:

Next you'll need to peel back the top label to expose the filling hole. (Be sure to wear rubber gloves, this ink is hard to get off! My kit included the gloves.) 

Fill the syringe that came in your kit.

Push the needle through the filling hole and then slowly inject the ink.

Place the label back over the filling hole and install the cartridge back into your printer. It's that easy!

Now pat yourself on the back for saving money! I purchased my kit here, and there are probably other sites that sell them, so you may want to shop around. Although I've been really happy with the results from my kit.

I've condensed the instructions, so be sure to follow the instructions that come with your kit. 

I hope you have a Nifty Thrifty Thursday!

Nifty Thrifty Thursday: Hanging Cheap Art Cheaply

Thrift addicts - I know some of you, like me, have been thrifty girls all along. Others, because of the state of the economy, have been forced to be thrift shoppers. It can be fun though, finding ways to save money. Really. So Thursdays will be my day to share some of my thrifty ideas with you. I'll write about ideas for saving money around the home, and also about bargains found while shopping.

So let's get started. Today is about a low-cost way to hang art. Sometimes you'll find prints of pictures at great prices, but you don't want to invest a lot of money in framing right away.

I found these vintage paint-by-number paintings at an estate sale. I paid 50 cents for each of them. 

I could have framed them, but instead I got out some big old binder clips. I'd bought of a whole zip-locked bag full of these in various sizes, from the Goodwill for $1.00. I pulled out 4 jumbo clips. 

Next, I dug through my ribbon stash. I found some wide satin ribbon. The light blue color matched some of the blue in the paintings and also worked for the color scheme in my sewing studio, where I'd be hanging these. Using two binder clips for each painting, I threaded the ribbon through the top holes and tied a knot in each end, leaving enough slack ribbon between the knots so they would hang nicely.

And that was it! They were ready to hang. 

For about $2.00 and 5 minutes of my time I had something pretty to hang in my studio. Wasn't that simple?

I had another little garage sale print that I did the same thing with, and hung it in the living room.

So what do you think? Was this a helpful idea?