Anonymous wrote:How old are you? Every family I know has a printer at home.

Some people live on one budget, some are single parents, some live paycheck to paycheck
some are at poverty line. PP don't assume that everyone can afford one but yes, every
child should have one if only possible.

OP, you should post in teens forum, that forum will have much better understanding of kids needs
in this regard.

There are few ways that you can try to get a free or inexpensive printer:
-ask forum if someone can donate
- go to local thrift shop
- go to your local dumpster, people dump perfectly good printers all the time
and you can just ask someone prior to dumping if you can have it, I would
be happy to give it to you instead of dumping into recycles knowing it
would help your child immediately.
- post a free ad wherever you can to ask.

People are buying new computers and new printers all the time and
replace perfectly good working ones, they do it mostly for the updated
looks so something three y ears old will still be great working but
they just dont' like it anymore.

How old are you? Every family I know has a printer at home.

Buy a printer but do it for the house. Ask your teen what else they would like for Christmas. Giving them a printer for Xmas is like giving them a vacuum cleaner.

Be careful letting laser printer into your home environment especially if you have allergies,
asthma and other issues. Google laser printer health hazards and decide then.

Anonymous wrote:DS16 just asked for a printer in the house - and it isn't in our existing budget.

We have not had an in home printer for years - our experience was that ink was expensive, and just dried up before getting used.

We want to support his needs - but also want to do so in a way that isn't wasteful.

Do your high school students print at school? At home? If the latter, what solutions do you have - type of printer, frequency of ink purchase, etc...?

Of course you need a printer at home when you have a school age kid. Printing all kinds
of materials are very helpful in all kinds of ways outside and within the school spectrum.
Printer is essential tool like a pen or computer. It allows you immediately print materials
that you need and have them at your disposal as needed.

Printing outside of the house causes hardship on a kid and oftentimes hinders learning.
It is essential for research and for creative education. Also it is great for expanding
child's horizons.

Black and white printing is very inexpensive and color is not that expensive either
however to make some budgeting you can restrict color printing of big full color
pages but you should not restrict black and white text printing ever.

You can buy very economical printers that print tons of pages per cartridge.

If I were you I would just buy the cheapest printer but with few things in mind:
- it would need to have an option for separate black cartrage along with color ones
as if you have only color ones and no black, the printer uses colors to print in black
so it is expensive.
-I would stay away from Epson who has nice printers but my experience is that
as opposed to HP their heads do tend to dry between uses and it sucks and is very
frustrating therefore causes problems.
- HP printers you can have sitting for months without use if you have to and
their heads do not dry as Epson so you can just go straight to printing some stuff.

Printing outside is more expensive then printing at home, if it is not about money
then it is about time, if your child has to go places and look for free option,
it takes away tons of money from resting, and studying and relaxing and all that
kid needs so it is a total waste of life. Average school kid can run on one
set of cartridges for solid few months sometimes even a year if they print
only few pages a week.

This is random HP basic work horse printer that cost 59 bucks at Best Buy, it will
do for the very basic home use without any problems and will last you years.
many people use this kind of printers for kids or family use because it is really
good basic printer. Picture come so so but it is not ideal for photo printing
but your school papers will do just fine.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-5055-all-in-one-instant-ink-ready-printer-black/6191401.p?skuId=6191401&ref=212&loc=1&ref=212&loc=1&msclkid=6ba64f6bb5c91b76f906128781d4eceb&gclid=CIvo8_fWpOYCFZLzswodYasKLQ&gclsrc=ds

It takes two cartrages - one is color and the other is black ink
each can be bought individually at 15 bucks more less
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-65-ink-cartridge-black/5301900.p?skuId=5301900

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-65-ink-cartridge-cyan-magenta-yellow/5301800.p?skuId=5301800

or both in one paper box for bit less
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-65-2-pack-ink-cartridges-multicolor-black/5303000.p?skuId=5303000

We bought a laser printer that prints black and white only and we have been very happy with it. The one we have is a Dell, which we actually bought second hand from a friend who is a college professor. She was upgrading her printer for her home office and sold us her old one. We have had it about 7 years now and it is just a workhorse. It prints fast and never seems to need any maintenance.

Here is a brother printer for black and white only that is $80 and has good reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2300D-Monochrome-Printer-Printing/dp/B00NQ1CLTI/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=laser%2Bprinter%2Bblack%2Bwhite&qid=1575692901&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-6&th=1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a HP laser printer and buy your ink at costco. At most schools can't even print there. The schools don't have enough paper for the teachers, let alone for middle schoolers and high schoolers to print assignments!

Get a printer, OP.

I understand - what I don't understand is how he has gotten through freshman, sophomore, and half of junior years without - and now needs one.

It's just something I never wanted to have to deal with - DH and I very rarely print, and it has been nice to not have to deal with another piece of tech/equipment that can break/malfunction/cause headaches.

And, you are recommending an HP laser - do you mean buy the toner at Costco?

Yes, HP Laser and get the toner at costco for it. Exactly.

We had to replace ours recently. We got this one:
https://www.costco.com/hp-officejet-pro-8028-all-in-one-print%2c-scan%2c-copy%2c-fax.product.100492930.html

I like being able to scan, copy and print.

Anonymous wrote:Buy a printer cheapskate.
We always had a printer at home.

Name call all you want. I very rarely had a printer at home. Computer, yes. Printer, no.

Printers can be $100. They can also be $300, $500 or $800 (or more, I imagine).

Big difference in price and, I suspect, quality/dependability/longevity - and I was not feeling well versed enough to know where on the cost spectrum we need to land.

Anonymous wrote:Get a HP laser printer and buy your ink at costco. At most schools can't even print there. The schools don't have enough paper for the teachers, let alone for middle schoolers and high schoolers to print assignments!

Get a printer, OP.

I understand - what I don't understand is how he has gotten through freshman, sophomore, and half of junior years without - and now needs one.

It's just something I never wanted to have to deal with - DH and I very rarely print, and it has been nice to not have to deal with another piece of tech/equipment that can break/malfunction/cause headaches.

And, you are recommending an HP laser - do you mean buy the toner at Costco?

Get a HP laser printer and buy your ink at costco. At most schools can't even print there. The schools don't have enough paper for the teachers, let alone for middle schoolers and high schoolers to print assignments!

Get a printer, OP.

Anonymous wrote:We have an HP all-in-one and we buy our ink at Costco. Yes, the ink is expensive, but I buy it on sale at Costco and probably spend about $200/year on ink. I'm surprised that people with means go without at-home printing options. It's so convenient to be able to print stuff at home and I can't imagine relying on my employer to subsidize that cost.

Of course you can't imagine - it's not allowed in most workplaces.

We have an HP all-in-one and we buy our ink at Costco. Yes, the ink is expensive, but I buy it on sale at Costco and probably spend about $200/year on ink. I'm surprised that people with means go without at-home printing options. It's so convenient to be able to print stuff at home and I can't imagine relying on my employer to subsidize that cost.

I cannot believe people like this exist.
Let me guess, you arent paying for college either.

Buy a printer cheapskate.
We always had a printer at home.