Does printer ink really cost more than champagne?

Yes. I hate to break it to you folks, but those little plastic cartridges that you are constantly replacing do cost more than champagne. In fact, they cost more money than lots of luxury items, including Smirnoff Vodka, Dom Perignon, Petrol and even Chanel No. 5.

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How often do you go to use your printer, only to be greeted by an 'ink running low' reminder and  little twinkling lights? If you're anything like me (and I don't actually print that much stuff off these days), you'll be fed up of shelling out for printer ink.

This rather awesome infographic (at the bottom of the post) proves just how expensive printer ink is. When we print reams and reams of paper in the office or at home, we don't think just how much money we could be wasting.

Would you buy an expensive bottle of fizz and pour it all down the drain? I didn't think so. So, why do we not do more to prevent using so much printer ink?

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Many of us spend hours searching on the internet for ways to save money, whether it's knocking a few quid off our annual energy bills or finding a cheaper car insurance quote. Yet, when it comes to one of the most expensive liquids we buy, we don't bat an eyelid?

The average UK household spends around £200 on printer ink cartridges. Whoa. I'll give you a minute to absorb that information and put it into perspective.

We could very well be splashing out more cash on ink than other household bills, including our road tax and TV licence!

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So, now we know just how much we might be spending on printer ink, is there a reason why it's so expensive? Well, yes there is. This type of ink and the cartridge costs a small fortune to manufacture, so it's very difficult to pass it on to the consumer at a cheap price.

However, the prices we regularly see in the shops and on the web are most definitely inflated. If you're already outraged, you might want to stop read now.

The cost of ink cartridges has also soared over the past ten years, partly because the amount of ink inside the cartridges has reduced. HP's most popular ink cartridge in 2004 was the HP45, which contained 42mls and cost around twenty quid. These days, we're paying £13 for just 5ml of ink from the current best seller.

How does that 650% price increase sound? Painful, I'm sure.

Next time your computer starts reminding you that you're printer is out of ink, see if you could cut the cost with discount vouchers for Cartridge People and other retailers.