If you are on a tight budget, you've probably realized that replacement ink cartridges are not cheap. If you need an ink cartridge that will give you a quality result, you may be hard pressed to find one cheap.

While some people don't necessarily care about how their prints look and can buy just about any dime-a-dozen 3rd party cartridge, if you're like me and want prints that look as good as what you would get with an original cartridge, you have to be more picky. When choosing a cartridge to buy, you'll discover that the highest prices doesn't always mean the best results. There are many great solutions for ink that get you the same results as the name brand.

One of the most popular ways to save money when it comes to buying ink cartridges is to refill them yourself. If you're someone that has to worry about how much they pay for things, you'll discover that buying a refill kit for ink is a cheap and effective solution. While printer refill kits can cost as much as normal set of cartridges, you can use the kit to refill your cartridges many times.

Having your ink cartridges refilled at your own home with a kit has its advantages and disadvantages. The number one pro is that it saves you tons of money per print. Most people can save over 60% to 70% off the original manufacturer's price on printer cartridges. Unfortunately, beyond the money saving factor, there aren't many pros with refilling. Refilling your own ink cartridges can be an icky and risky. Not only do you risk getting ink all over, but you always can risk damaging your printer. Quite a few people ended up permanently wrecking their printer because of leaky ink refills. Also, ink is very messy and can stain your clothes and hands very easily. There has been a few cases where printers wouldn't print because of a refilled ink cartridge. So the final reason why ink refilling may not be the best idea is you can end up wasting a lot of your hard earned money if your printer doesn't accept the cartridge.

Whether you're looking for Brother, Canon, Epson, or even HP compatible ink cartridges there tons of refurbished or refilled cartridges you can buy in the store or online. If you don't want to deal with refilling cartridges yourself (something I highly recommend) and still want to save lots of money, buy re-manufactured cartridges.

There are many local stores that provide ink refills as well as sell refurbished compatible ink jet cartridges. Locally, OfficeMax tends to have the best prices for ink refills and refurbished cartridges. If you're someone that needs their ink right away for printing, you can't get much cheaper than them (especially if you have coupons). The internet will be the cheapest place to find ink cartridges, however. There are many sellers who provide quality cartridges as very low prices. Buying refurbished ink online can save you tons of money. When compared with prices you pay at a local superstore, you can save up to 60% off the name brand price.