Hubby wanted me to post his great deal from yesterday. *sigh*
A little background … when I first met hubby he was just getting into the grocery coupon game. He followed me from fatwallet to bargainshare so he could learn from me. Eventually we met, and later married. I have always said he is the greatest deal I ever got online. 
Over the years he’s become a grocery coupon slacker. I’m not sure why he stopped, but he is kind enough to be my coupon mule gathering inserts when he travels, gathering tear pad coupons when he travels, and being the extra body I need when something is “limit one per person”.
However, he was always into electronic, computer and gadget deals and that never stopped.
Now, like many of you I print a lot. Between coupons and well, more coupons, my printer uses quite a bit of ink. I have an old inkject HP and it drives him crazy that I pay so much for ink cartridges (I once read an online account as to why HP does not refill very well, and it has something to do with the pins). He’s been bugging me to move on to a laser printer, and I have resisted. Ever see the price of those replacement cartridges!? Like a hundred bucks each! Still mister-unit-price finally convinced me because the cost per print is so much less with a laser printer versus an inkject printer.
So yesterday I needed to go to Office Depot. We had a $32 and change reward card that was going to expire today, and I was going to buy … ink!
Well needless to say that drove hubby bonkers.
We stopped for mail, and inside was almost $20 more in rewards.
Now hubby was determined that I was not going to “squander” $50 in rewards on ink.
Ummm ok, so I’ll pay cash next week instead!?
He gathered all his Office Depot and Office Max coupons (they take competitor coupons), his rewards (you know, the ones earned when I recycled my ink cartridges) and we headed for the store.
Walking in to Office Depot, he grabbed the ad.
Ut oh. There was a printer trade in deal going on; $50 off any laser printer originally priced at $299+ when you trade in an old printer.
The wheels are spinning.
I smell the smoke.
That hamster is getting tired.
He stops the manager to confirm that the HP model that is on sale qualifies. Manager confirms that even though it is on sale for $225, the original price was over $299 so he can get a $50 credit with a used printer turned in for recycling.
Bingo! Hubby is all over this.
He goes home, comes through out dead printers down the basement and decides to take in an old Lexmark that was too clogged to get the dry ink out.
He heads back to Office Depot and here is his deal:
HP color laser printer $225 on sale ($299.99 regular price)
- $50 printer trade in
= $175
- $25 off any HP printer Office Dept coupon
= $150
- $30/$150 Office Max coupon
= $120
- $51 Office Depot rewards
= $69
He was thrilled.
I am not sure I am though. This thing is HUGE compared to my old HP and each toner replacement is like a hundred dollars. That is gonna hurt when I go to buy. But these are the kind of deals hubby loves. You should have seen him years ago when we could get most electronics for free! He was like a kid in a candy store. Now he is resigned to cheap, but very happy when he finds a great deal.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ann,
I don’t know why you stuck with an HP printer when the cartridges are so expensive. I got an Epson Stylus some years ago and I love it. I can get super cheap cartridges on the internet. For a while some of the cartridges were so cheap that I made money by recycling them at Staples for $3 in rewards. The last time I ordered they were a bit more than $3 (maybe $4.99) but I guess I can’t expect these things to be free. I don’t remember exactly what I paid for the printer because I got it probably five years ago. I think the original price was around $120 but there were about $50 in rebates. I haven’t had any problems with it and I LOVE being able to get cheap ink. I used to have a Lexmark and the cartridges were an arm and a leg. I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy another printer unless you could get reasonably priced replacement cartridges for it. My Epson sure fits the bill plus it produces terrific prints & copies and it is a scanner as well.
Gita
That’s so cute! My hubby gets like that too although he’s just now starting to “get” the whole coupon thing!
Wow he sure brought that price down! Way to go hubby! I wish my husband cared about saving money. Not the case though
I hope it doesn’t get expensive for you in the long run.
you will love the laser printer. i print coupons like crazy and we only have to replace the cartridge every 1.5 YEARS. you can find the toner cheaper online and seriously they print forever.
I got a deal a week or two ago for a laser printer, too. I had $79 in Office Max money and I bought 2 brother HL-2140 laser printer (one for my brother’s birthday). I think they were $49 or $59 each (regular $199). I am happy with it–it prints sooooo much faster than my ink jet. I tried to buy it online so I could get 5% back thru shopathome but they were out so I had to go to the store but still got a fabulous deal. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.
Wow what a great deal!! I would love to a laser printer, not for the coupons though, just for my craft printing, the ink isn’t suppose to smudge when it gets wet!
That’s great! What a fantastic deal on a laser printer. DH is the same way as yours when it comes these techie deals. Anything but food & drug deals. He can wrap his head around the techie deals & online ones, but ask him to do drug store/supermarket or any food cpns – forget it. All the sudden, he has no idea how to do them. ??? (at least your DH knows how to do drug store/supermarket as well). Makes no sense, but thankfully, his bigger savings on bigger ticket items probably just equals all the little savings that I do.
Enjoy the laser. You can always get cheaper generic refills on toner, but be careful when you refill it (from experience with DH).
Love that hubby is in on the electronic deals! I need him to be my electronic guru! That is an outstanding deal, considering our warranty program just sent us a replacement printer and when I priced it they were about $299 online (ouch…glad I bought that warranty). The toner cartridges do go waaaaaay farther, Ann. In my “non-couponing, non-rebating” job I have to print packages that are 125-150 pages long and I can print at least 10-12 of them on one of these cartridges. And those are full pages of print. Plus you can trade them in to any office store for a reward and buy a replacement online (be careful….some of these online places are cheap but only fill the cartridge to half capacity….hard lesson learned). Try it….you’ll like it
!
My hubby traded in my Lexmark for a laser printer too. I’m loving it! toner is way more expensive, but you don’t have to buy it nearly as often. Mine is wireless, so I can print to it from any of the 8 computers in the house.