I just thought I would post this breakdown of at home printing cost for me. It's long gives you a good idea of what it would cost and be like to print nicer quality books at home. I know it's a long post, but this is what you need to consider if you are going to print yourself. My final recommendation is at the bottom. HOWEVER: It's worth noting a few things. If you have more than 3 kids and you order print from GHR you get digital for free. If you have 6 or more kids you get the lifer package for free too. ONLY DURING THE SALE: If you get print for the whole year on the sale for 2 kids it's $800 which breaks down to $80 per unit, and free shipping. So you wouldn't save much to do it yourself. If you bought it not on sale and 1 unit at a time, it would be $103 for 2 kids per unit. That includes $23 shipping to US. PRINTING AT HOME BREAKDOWN: PRINTING: I printed the books myself. I have an HP OfficeJet Pro 8035 Printer for $175+ tax & Shipping. I don't pay for Ink I pay for pages with HP Instant Ink subscription. I get 700 pages for $19.99+tax a month. (I would note I also teach at a co-op so I used may pages for that too) However, for 2 kids and the teacher's guide (lets say roughly 150 pages each), printing 1 unit per month, I would use 450~ pages per month. (There are cheaper subscription plans, this is the biggest one.) PRINTING COST BREAKDOWN: HP Instant Ink is $0.03 per printed page. (So double sided is $0.06 per page) PAPER: I bought HP Premium Paper: I use 24lb. paper the teach guide & 32lb. for the student workbooks. (That being said, even though they are thicker pages, I have found they still can't do watercolor painting on them.) The 24lb. is $12.12 for 500 sheets. The 32lb. is $13.48 for 500 sheets. PAPER COST BREAKDOWN: 24lb is $0.02 per page. 32lb. is $0.03 per page. BINDING: I do that myself, I spent $265 on a TruBind TB-S20AP Coil Binding Machine. COILS: Coils size 8mm cost $13.76 for 100 (good for 54 pages). Size 10mm cost $15.49 for 100 (good for 75 pages). Size 13mm cost $16.51 for 100 (good for 105 pages). [Reminder: the 150~ pages for most units prints double sided so 150~ would be 75~ actual pages] COILS COST BREAKDOWN: 10mm coil is $0.15 per book, 8mm is $0.14 and 13mm is $0.17. COVERS: For the front covers I bought TruBind PVC Clear covers for $16.47 for 100. For the back cover I got Binditek 16 mil leather textured polycovers for $18.28 for 50. COVERS COST BREAKDOWN: Clear Covers are $0.16 per book. Black back covers are $0.37 per book. EXAMPLE for 150 page books for 2 kids and 1 teacher's guide: In the future my monthly cost to do GRHS will be as follows: GRH Digital Unit $49.95 (if bought individually with no sale) Printing: $0.03 per printed page. Paper: Teachers Guide 24lb is $0.02 per page. Student workbooks 32lb. is $0.03 per page. Binding: 10mm coil is $0.15 per book Covers: Clear front $0.16 per book & Black back $0.37 per book. Teachers Guide Printed is: $6.68 Student Workbooks printed is: $7.43 Total monthly cost for me to print 1 teacher's guide and 2 student books per month is: $71.49. The initial cost for the printer and binding machine is $440. OPTIONAL BINDERS: If you did binders instead, you can get really cheap ones for around $1. I like the Pen + Gear 1/2 inch ones, those are about $2.47 at Walmart. Coil Binding is about $0.68 per book. So binders aren't cheaper, you would just have to pay upfront for a coil binding machine. CONCLUSION: For me anyway Printing at home is doable for me, and saves me some money, especially since I'm in the US for shipping reasons, plus I get the digital units which I can reuse later. Mind you, I also already use my binding machine and printer for teaching at a co-op. RECOMMENDATION: I highly recommend considering buying the year print during the sale rather than doing it yourself, especially if you have 3+ kids (so you can get digital too for free). You will get better quality books hands down, free shipping and the amount you would save otherwise is minimal, plus less stress to get everything printed each month yourself. Hope it helps!

Posted by Laira Stewart at 2020-06-30 18:25:14 UTC