You've thought about your needs, researched the available printers, purchased a machine at a terrific price and now you've suddenly realized the retail price is not the only cost associated with your new printer.

You can find a printer for less than $100 and some really good ones for around $200 but remember, the purchase price is just the beginning of keeping your printer running smoothly and performing to your expectations. The biggest costs associated with running your printer are ink cartridges or toner cartridges and paper.

Inkjet printers work by putting liquid ink on the paper and applying pressure to the ink to make it stick to the paper in formed words. In this sense, it is similar to writing with a pen. Ink cartridges contain one or more reservoirs of ink (depending on whether you have a black or color cartridge). Toner is a powder blend of carbon and polymer that is melted by the printer's fuser and bound to the paper. Inkjet printers are usually the cheapest available to purchase but can be the most expensive to run. The upfront savings mask a higher cost on the operating end for both ink and paper which can cost a lot. Ink typically costs between $12 and $60 per cartridge depending on the brand and size and can print anywhere from 100-500 pages. You'll want to be careful when buying cartridges for your printer. I'll use hp ink cartridges as an example. The HP #74 prints only 200 pages for around 16.00. The #74XL prints 750 pages for around 31.00. So for double the price, you get almost 300% more ink. A good money saving idea is to purchase compatible ink cartridges from online retail stores. They can save you 50% or more depending on brand and may cut the costs of operating your printer significantly.

Laser toner cartridges vary more widely in price. A small cartridge for a personal laser printer can cost as little as $10 while networked laser printers can have cartridges that cost as much as $300. While the cost of toner may seem high, the yield is much greater than an ink cartridge. A single toner cartridge can print anywhere between 2,500 and 30,000 pages.

Want to print your own checks? You'll need a special Magnetic Toner, or MICR toner cartridge, check printing software and special blank check stock for your laser printer.

As is true for most things, the better the quality, the more you pay. This goes for paper as well. If you want to print the best graphics, the best, crispest text, you need good paper. Coated specialty paper will produce the crispest text and the most vibrant images but will cost anywhere between 10 cents and $2 per page, a far cry from a pack of standard copy paper. Photo paper is also expensive and the highest quality photographs are printed on the best photo paper.

Be careful when purchasing a printer, there is nothing worse than unpacking your new printer at home and realizing that you have no way to hook it to your computer. Most printer manufacturers do not include printer cables with the printer. Read the box carefully before taking your printer home and factor in the cost of that $10-$30 cable before you start enjoying your printed documents.