Seeking Treasure?

Check your clutter.

I have a lot of stuff. Some days I discover even more stuff. Stuff that I didn't know I had. Some of it is cool. Some has gone bad while I was saving it for a special occasion. That's the thing about tucking stuff back for later. If you don't take the time to rotate it, you are likely to just forget about it.

As I was clearing off the bookshelves one more time, (I do a last look before I walk out the door with donations.) I discovered ink for my printer. I have a Lexmark X3430. It is an all-in-one. It scans, copies, prints, reads flash cards and had PictBridge. It probably does way more stuff, but I have no idea. I need it to scan, copy and print. Years ago I bought it for a fabulous price and loved it until I had to buy ink cartridges.

One of the advantages of working in an office is that you can print at work. The concept of printing at home was foreign. That said, my cartridges lasted quite a while, until my children and their friends needed to print assignments or just printed for the fun of it. One day they announced that the printer was out of ink. I directed them to the store to replace it. "Well, it's expensive." "Yep."

What I later learned is that the ink also dries out if not used regularly. So my $30 cartridges are just wasting away. That stopped my purchases all together, until... As I am home these days without the convenience of an office for printing, I was looking for a resource.

Back to my clutter. I found, on my book shelf, an unopened ink cartridge. It has been sitting on my desk until today. I finally took it back to the store because 1) it cost almost $30 and I can use that money better, and 2) I can print at the library for five cent a page. On my return I found a very big 3) color cartridges are expected to get only 175 pages. It is written on the package. And, 4) my printer only takes a color cartridge. I only need black ink.

Refund totaled $29.09

These days you can buy a brand new printer with a cartridge for the cost of a cartridge. So, I collected my refund and bought groceries. It was a great day. While I make most of my food from scratch, I picked up Progresso soups and one pound bags of frozen vegetables both on sale for $1. For an easy meal, I place a cup of spinach in a bowl then cover with a can of soup. Microwave until hot and serve with crackers or bread. Quick and easy.


Dig around in your stuff. You never know what you might find. Enjoy the adventure.