Pages

Friday, July 4, 2014

Mami Time Saver: HP Instant Ink Available at Best Buy

This is a sponsored post.

This is part of my Mami Time Savers series.

One of the most frequent expenses I've faced as a homeschooling mom has been ink for my printer. If you are a homeschooler, I know you can sympathize. I don't have the space or the money to invest in a big, industrial printer that uses giant ink cartridges. I really prefer a desktop printer and have always preferred HPs. And because I'm big on saving SPACE (as well as time!), 3-in-one or 4-in-one printers are best in my opinion. I like that I can copy, print, scan, and/or fax from one device. 

So when I had the chance to review the HP Envy 5530 AND the HP Instant Ink Service, I agreed.

Let me tell you: It is life changing for me! First, let's talk about the printer.

The HP Envy 5530 e-All-in-One Printer


This is one of technology's greatest inventions for educators and parents. A wireless printer, the HP Envy can be accessed from ANY digital device. You can print from your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC. 

You don't even have to be at home! 

If you're at the library and take a photo of your kids enjoying the summer reading program, all you have to do is snap a photo and then hit print. If your printer is on at home and has wireless access, then when you get home your photo will be printed and ready to go!

Setting it up is super easy and only takes a couple of minutes. I LOVE that it prints both sides of the paper at the same time! It's not slow, either, but fast a quiet. I'm used to desktop printers that are noisy, especially when scanning. But this printer is so quiet, I thought it wasn't working when I was standing next to it waiting for it to scan a document. Only to see the screen say that the scan had already been sent to my email. Whaa?? I thought. Sure enough, my email had a scanned pdf file waiting for me.

The other thing that I have been searching for FOREVER is a borderless printing printer. Ta-da! This is it. And it prints photos beautifully! 


There are a lot of perks to owning this printer, too. When you sign up on the HP Connected website, you gain access to a LOT of free printables from brands like Highlights, Crayola, Disney, DreamWorks, Education.com, LeapFrog, and many others. You can also print recipes, calendars, puzzles, greeting cards and much, much more. And it is all FREE!

The site even keeps a log of all the files you've sent to your printer over the last month. You can print up a report if you want to keep track. 

And lastly, the site gives you access to...

HP Instant Ink Replacement Service


You will NEVER run out of ink again! This service is a goldmine. Your printer tracks your ink usage and when you get low, it notifies HP who sends you more ink in the mail.

You just select your plan...



... and ink, shipping, and recycling cartridges are included! Yes, they even provide postage-paid shipping materials to return used cartridges. HP Planet Partners will recycle them as part of your service. 

Color and black-and-white copies are the same. The monthly plans are based on the number of pages printed, not the number of cartridges you use so you can print as many high quality photos as you want. There's no annual fee and you can cancel at any time. (Psst! If you sign up now, you can get a free month of service.) Billing and service start after you insert you first HP Instant Ink cartridge.

PLUS the ink cartridges come with more ink than the ones you buy in the store (each one prints more than 500 pages), so you save a lot more moolah! I did the math. Last year I spent almost $200 in ink. If I had been on the $4.99 plan, I would have only spent $60 for the whole year! 

So, if you are like me and homeschool your kids and spend a small fortune on ink printing up worksheets, activity sheets, images, pictures, and pages out of books so you can resell them later, then THIS is definitely worth considering.

Do you have a cloud printer? Do you love it as much as I do?

Disclosure: I'm a Best Buy ambassador and received this product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions, though, are strictly my own. If I don't like a product, I simply refuse to write about it and won't think twice about returning it.