Ink cartridges can mostly be refilled, but everyone I know who's done it says that the mess and the time required is "barely worth it at best."

It should be noted that some cartridges for newer inkjets have a microchip built in that has to be "reprogrammed" in order to reuse the cartridge. Full or empty, the printer won't print unless the cartridge "says it's new" when you put it in.

Rather than doing it yourself, you might look around for a place like one up the street from us that refills them for you. You take the cartridge in, they refill it, you pay roughly (from the few reports I've heard) a little less than half the price of a new mfr's cartridge.

You might also check to see if one of your office supply stores has a "recycle" program. Office Max in my area will trade you a ream of paper (about $3 US worth) for a used/empty cartridge. They apparently send them to a "refiller" who re-brands them with a "discount brand name" and they resell them as "same as the real thing." Unfortunately their policy is "one per trip" so you have to be sure to make the swap every time you go in. Three bucks back on a $35 cartridge isn't much, but it helps.

If you want best quality color matching, especially for photos, it does make a difference if you use the printer maker's ink and paper. For routine office printing, especially with an older printer, the refills (or house brand cartridges) probably are okay if you want to mess with it - according to a limited number of test lab reports.

John