Received Epson R280--is this what we need? Canon Pixma MP 250? Don't know much~

Tweet

Good morning~ My sister-in-law gave us a printer that they have had but haven't used yet. It's an Epson R280. We need a printer, as ours broke a while and we had to get rid of it. I teach Spanish (one-on-one, small groups, online...); and I'm starting a class this coming week. Looks like I'll be printing lots of papers each week for this class. We have to make a decision about a printer. My husband bought a printer the other day, a Canon Pixma MP 250. Money is super tight right now. We could return the printer my husband bought and use the money for other bills, etc. Or we could use the Epson R280. The thing with the Epson R280 is that it's a photo printer, and we don't really print pictures that much. If we do, we can just go to Walmart. We really don't need a photo printer. We're concerned about the cost of using this. It has six separate ink cartridges! The black one is $20; but a multi-pack of all the others is $89! There's no way we can afford to spend $89 on ink! My brother-in-law said that we could give this back to them if it didn't meet our needs. I have no idea as to how long it'd take for the different cartridges to run out. If I'd only end up replacing a couple at a time, it wouldn't be too bad. Black is $20; and I believe the individual colors were about $12.50 each. I just thought I'd see if anyone knew anything about all this and if you all had suggestions for us from a practical standpoint. Thanks so much for your help! ~artsyfartsygal