Here's a quick trick to cut down on printer consumables: downsize your output so that two pages fit on single sheet of paper. ("Honey, I shrunk the Word document!") It's easy to do, and it can save you up to 50 percent on your printing costs.

The "2-on-1" approach works like this: Each page gets reduced in size and rotated 90 degrees, so that two pages can fit side-by-side on one sheet (think: booklet). Programs like Word and Adobe Reader give you this option right in the Print menu. In programs that don't (like Firefox), you can venture into the Properties menu for the selected printer and look for a "page layout" or "page scaling" option.

Obviously this won't always be practical; there are times when you need full-size, full-page prints. But I've found that for situations when I just need to review document layout or keep printed materials on hand for reference, the shrunken pages work just fine.

Of course, the best way to save paper and ink is to bypass them entirely. Whenever possible, "print" your documents to PDF files you can store on your PC or e-mail to others. I'm partial to CutePDF Writer, a freeware "printer driver" that lets you turn virtually any document into a PDF.