Caution With Free Resources

What?

That doesn't make any sense you say. Let me explain. In order for my children to take advantage of the free learning tool, I almost always have to print it for them. One problem I found with printing my own work sheets is that my ink jet printer isn't very cheap per copy, especially if I use the colour option.

My laser printer is much cheaper than my inkjet printer to run; however, it costs more initially for the machine and the toner.

It seems that the printing publishers can print things in such volume that they can print much more economically then I can, and still make a profit.

For example, most of my reference books were found in the bargain shelves at the local book store. The colour photographs are often great quality, and are equal or better than my best print quality option on my printer. According to my calculations, it costs me about $1/page to print a colour page (give or take).

I found the same goes for workbooks. It's often cheaper to buy one for each of the children, instead of printing or copying it myself.

Side Bar - Math and Home Economics Project

What's the difference in copy cost between colour and black & white copies? Do you have more than one printer? What's the difference between them? Did you get the number of pages out of the cartridge that the manufacturers suggests? Remember, a graphic filled page uses more ink than one full of text alone, so you might want to keep track of how many "text" pages and how many "graphic" pages you printed.

Compare your results with other home schoolers that have a different model of printer.

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I'm not very fond of the high cost to keep my Lexmark printer in ink. I'm told by others that Canon is one of the cheapest to keep in ink, but I don't have one at the moment. If you have any wisdom in picking an inkjet printer, let me know, so I can pass it on.

I've found great books with tens or hundreds of pages for $3 - $30. I couldn't print them as cheaply. I could only print about 20 pages for $20. So think twice before hitting the print button if you're watching the budget. Could you find a bargain book on sale - maybe at a home school book swap sale? Keep you eyes open.

Free Offers Like Think All Publishing

Perhaps you've seen the advertising from "think all publishing" or "www.thinkall.com" to receive 4 free educational CD's, for the cost of shipping. Since they're educational CD's, I wanted to check them out to see if I could recommend them.

I strongly don't recommend them! They weren't that great, and they seemed to add extra unwanted programs on my computer. However, in the small print of their agreement, #7, they stated only two were free, the other two were $25.00 each, and I would be in a membership and get 4 more again next month. If I had have sent two back during the trial period, I would not have been charged; however, I thought 4 were free and didn't realize it was a trial. Yes, I was duped. Yes, I should have actually read all the agreement more closely. In my second shipment, 2 were free, and as I'm sending 2 back, I won't be charged for them. Lesson learned. Even though the beginning of agreements don't say much. Read through them carefully!

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