This Is One Common Tech Device I'll Never Buy Again

Is this tech device really necessary or just a costly hassle? 

Some technology I don't mind breaking out the credit cards for. In fact, I've been willing to spend a small fortune to buy an expensive computer and software I need to increase my productivity.  

I also don't mind paying for the cost of a nice phone since I use my cell all the time, and even buying a high-quality TV for the rare times when I actually get a moment to watch a movie so I can enjoy the experience.

There is, however, one tech device that's found in many homes (and offices) which I will absolutely not be buying any more. 

I'll never buy a printer again

A printer is the one tech device that will absolutely never have a place in my home again. And there are a few key reasons for that.

First, I'm not sure if I've just had bad luck or not, but it seems like printers are very prone to not working properly. Over the past few years, I've purchased numerous printers -- all of which have developed problems that were time consuming to fix if they could be fixed at all. 

One of my printers inexplicably stopped printing any black ink at all, just a few short months after we bought it. A phone call to customer service was no help, and they said we could send it in for warranty replacement but that became a huge hassle of disconnecting and shipping. 

Other printers have had various issues of their own, from failing to stay connected to the wifi to not recognizing our computers when plugged in with a cable to constantly falling victim to paper jams with masses of paper getting stuck. Every time I wanted to print anything, I would end up with a half-hour battle of trying to get the device working, if I was able to do it at all. 

Aside from this hassle, and wasted time and money trying to fix problems or set up new printers, the ink is also astronomically expensive for every printer I've ever come across. Worse, many of the newer printers have chips that tell the printer you're out of ink after a certain number of pages are printed even when there is actually ink left in them. It's a huge waste of money and a racket on the part of the printer companies. 

I decided to opt out of the entire system, and I absolutely will never own a printer again.

How I get by without a printer at home 

Getting by without a printer is much easier than I thought. For one thing, just about everything can be printed to PDF and stored digitally or can be downloaded to a phone instead of printed. We use my phone for printable coupons, for example, and for boarding passes.

On the rare occasions I need to print something, it's cheaper and easier to just go to a copy store or the library and ask them to print it for me. This has saved me money, and ironically, a lot of time since it can actually take me less time to pop into one of these stores when I'm out and about than it would take to get a printer working.

If you're like me and have had a bad experience with printers -- or if buying costly ink leaves a bad taste in your mouth -- you may want to decide to opt out of printers as well. It's been fine for me, so give it a try and see if it works for you.