Don't limit you shopping to discount stores - Printer purchase example

The Epson ink-eater printer died this week (insert taps here). I went looking for a HP printer because HP tends to have good customer support, fewer paper jams (because they have flat loading paper) and tons of ink specials. As it ended up I got my new printer from Office Depot. I could have grabbed a $100 printer at another retail chain such as Walmart or Target, but it seemed like I was not going to get the most for my money that way. My HP Officejet Pro 8500A is an all-in-one type of printer. This printer is intended for people who print 100 or more pages a week because the printer is supposed to be more ink efficeient. I decided it was worth the extra cash up front to save on ink later. The ink cartridges (not on sale) came in two sizes the smaller one retailed  for $20 and prints 1,000 pages, while the XL one ran $35 and prints 2,000 pages. The retail for this printer is $299, and it was on sale for $199. Now I asked the sales person about trading in my old (broken) printer, and indeed this qualified (yea!). Of course I came loaded with a coupon good for $40 off a $200 purchase, because thats just how I roll. Well, since my purchase was $1 short, I threw in a XL black ink cartridge by choice. Yes, I could have used my smaller coupon but seemed silly when I was that close not to save the extra $15 when I knew I was gonna need black ink soon anyway. If my ink goes on promo in the next two weeks, I simply take my receipt in and they give me the difference back. I will go back and buy more ink when it does goes on promo and I have a coupon.

Point of this post is to remind you that its not always cheaper to shop the discount stores, you can often take adantage of rebates and promos to get a better deal at the higher end stores. This concept is not strictly for printers, it can be applied accross the board. All said and done, I got a $299 printer for about the same price (or less) as it would have cost me to grab the $99 dollar one at Walmart or Target plus I got the one that will save my budget the cost of extra ink as a bonus.

Here is how it all broke down -

• HP Officejet Pro 8500A $299 -$100 for the sale price
• Added in a $35 ink cartridge
• Coupon -$40
• Trade in of old (broken) printer -$50
• 10% of printer & ink price to be applied to my next reward check -$14.40
• $2 per ink cartridge (pulled from broken printer) turned in for recycling to be applied to my next reward check x5 -$10

Total paid for printer and XL ink cartridge $119.60 plus tax

**Note: They have a price match policy as well as a 2 week sale price guarantee. The same printer went on sale at their competitors chain the next week for $179. I went back in with the ad and my receipt, and YES they gave me the $20 back, making my printer even cheaper!