Do you own a printer at home? Why/why not?

[Knan10]

Undecided on whether I’d need a printer at home considering how everything is digital now.

Please answer only if your reason for a printer isn’t school/uni work

Thanks :)

We use our printer quite a lot. I print out crochet and knitting patterns, recipes and information that I think will be useful. I am a LL and own 6 b2l and I print out tenants contracts and other information the government requires me to give to tenants at start of lease. We always print out self assessment form and file too. DH uses it as well as does child for school work. It has been very useful during lockdown. If I type out s letter and want to send I need to print it out. DS wanted to take photo of his kitten in to show his friends. We printed out the photo.

Yes because I run my own business from home and need it for work.

Yes because I needed to print work out to post to pupils in my class.

Didn’t need one before locdein

Yes, it’s a high end wireless printer. Admittedly I don’t use it much - I’m still on the starter cartridge and I’ve had it for 2 years! It comes in handy for printing postage labels, addresses directly on envelopes, glossy photos/prints, and the odd paperwork here and there.

Gig tickets, boarding passes (will never rely only on my phone), recently my living will and a letter to go with it, payslips, holiday insurance documents, sometimes receipts I want to keep, tax stuff, return label stuff, if I go for a job interview I print my CV to take and a copy of my passport, I print labels for parcels instead of writing on them.

My dad died a couple of weeks ago and am working through everything with mum and the number of things you have to print and sign, or scan in etc is huge.

We've got two printers in the house.
One is our own, DH uses it for various things - tickets, documents he wants hard copy of, expanded sections of map for walking.
The other is for my work, paid for by the company - mostly I use it for printing out scientific papers.

Yes, use it all the time.

Activity sheets for the kids, photos, school projects, travel documents, recipes, printable bits for when the bloody elf is here

It’s come in extra handy with lockdown, I’ve printed a load of charts/cheat sheet type things to help the kids with maths and English ‘rules’ etc.

Our neighbour is always asking for stuff to be printed, last week was a 42 page document I said no because it would use up all our ink but we worked it out so that she only actually needed 3 of the pages printed.

Ink is bloody expensive here!

We have one and I was just thinking if it wasn't for DS then we probably wouldn't need it.
Then I remembered Amazon return labels and passport applications to name but two. I think it would be problematic on occasions not to have one, but I suppose we would cope.

Yes, we've got one, it's not used a great deal, apart from school work. But it is useful to have one, I last used it to print concert tickets and to make home made birthday cards for my MIL.
I also had to print my credit card statement, I wouldn't normally bother but I'm doing online shopping for the oldies, and I need to keep track of how much they owe me.
I wouldn't be without one.

I'm a student teacher so it gets used a fair bit, I try print at school though. I'll often print a "master copy" at home and photocopy it.

I also have a 7 year old so yes, homeschooling. We also regularly print out colouring sheets to do.

Also handy for holiday documents, proof of insurance, boarding passes etc. Have also printed off tickets for gigs.

We have one and I was just thinking if it wasn't for DS then we probably wouldn't need it.
Then I remembered Amazon return labels and passport applications to name but two. I think it would be problematic on occasions not to have one, but I suppose we would cope

Good point, I recently had to print a returns label, I'm not sure what I would have done if we didn't have a printer.

No because in every area of life people are trying their best to avoid unnecessary paper usage and go paperless

I am paperless as possible in the office and am as paperless as can be at home too

No. I had one but it broke. If I remember rightly a new cartridge didn't fix it. I didn't replace it because I can co-opt the office printer when I need to print things. Or at least I could before this bloody lockdown.

Rule of thumb, the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the ink or toner will be. And inkjet printers used occasionally will waste ink. If I was to buy a printer tomorrow I'd go for a laser, even if that meant only having a black-and-white one.

I hadn't had one for 10 years, either printing at work or my parents for the odd times I needed a hard copy of something. I bought one just before lockdown when I knew I'd have to start working from home and the kids would be off school. It has been used loads over the last couple of months.

Yes, I bought a cheap wireless one just for the odd thing I needed to print off. It's absolute shit. After one use it told me the black in had run out, I can seem to get it to link to anything to print so it was a waste of money. I'll have to invest in a better one because it would really have come in handy for school work at the minute .

Yes I have a printer. They are bulky, mine lives in the sideboard and I have to haul it out every time I need it, but it is useful. I use mine for return labels, copies of my applications for a new passport and driving licence, vehicle registration form, those sorts of things. When I dealt with probate and my late parent's estate it was so useful as I had to make copies of everything. When mine eventually conks out I might try and do without it, but only if the small local library stays open so I can get my copies done there.

Yes, for werk. And dc's projects.

It scans too. One page at a time, lol.

It is a B/W laser printer Samsung M2070w. If I need colour, I print in the office - pre-pandemic.

A home printer/scanner is invaluable for the times when you do need it. You can save paper and ink by printing 2 pages on one sheet, double-sided. Also, if your home office is not set up with dual screens and you need both up, you can print the other 'screen' out (or use another computer as your second screen).

Yes. I work from home but I had one before anyway to print letters and tickets etc.

Yes, and I use it a lot. Printing out photos, pictures, essays (I learn languages as a part-time hobby). Boarding passes, theatre tickets, train tickets (obviously not at the moment).

Letters....I moved just before lockdown and sent out change of address letters to banks, building societies etc.

Also sent a letter to the tax office as they had messed up my tax code. No way of sorting out the complexities online and the 'phone was a never-ending queue so set everything out in a letter, printed it off and sent it. They managed to sort it all within 3 weeks (confirmed by letter in return) and that was during the pandemic...brilliant! If I hadn't sent an old-fashioned letter I believe I'd still be trying to ring them up and explain everything even now...

I've just bought a new printer as ours broke. After realising a long time ago how much of a scam the inkjet ink model is, we've always used a mono laser printer, which comes with a starter cartridge that lasts for years unless you print a lot.

Mainly used for work for me, but also for labels for eBay parcels, some of the cheaper couriers like MyHermes require you to have a printer to use them and also printing boarding passes as like a PP I don't want to rely on my phone that it isn't going to run out of battery, break or be lost or stolen and have to be fiddling around finding the right screen at the right time, so much easier to keep a piece of paper with the passport that you have to have to hand anyway.

I bought one for home school when lockdown started and its been invaluable.

Yeah, I have a wireless printer. I have used it loads over the last few weeks, but not for ages before that.

@NerforMuffin @YerAWizardHarry

What sites for colouring pages would you recommend? Thanks!

No, never needed it.

However now I'm home schooling I decided to buy one. Ordered on 27th April for next day delivery. It went out of stock and still hasn't arrived (should be this week?)

I am on a budget and all the other places who stock this printer / similar models are completely out of stock [or charging 3 times the price on Amazon and Ebay..... fuckers!!]

Yes and used daily. It’s a work one though.
We use it personally for things like printing off papers for accountant, minutes and agendas for charity I am secretary to, proof reading, Amazon return labels. Travel tickets and boarding passes.