<p>I bought a printer for college but not sure if its okay to actually charge my roomate for using it. Is this a normal thing at cornell or does it seems rather stingy to do it?</p>
<p>I have 2 children in college – 1 in Cornell. Both my kids & their roommates have always had their own printers. Between paper, ink, and anything else that is required (including maintenance), I have found it is better for everyone to have their own printer. They do share things like refrigerators, microwaves, televisions, x-box, etc. But everyone seems to have their own printer.</p>
<p>I printed stuff out for friends (and vice versa) every now and then, but nobody ever charged. And this was usually in emergency situations, when somebody who didn’t have a printer didn’t have enough time to print it out on campus.</p>
<p>If you would like to split costs, definitely don’t charge per page (as Cornell does)- that will appear stingy. What you can do is ask for your roommate to contribute to ink/paper costs when one or the other runs out. Make sure you set this expectation at the beginning, though. For example, “hey, we can share my printer if you want, and just split ink cartridge paper costs down the line, ok?” And split the cost accordingly when the time comes, don’t pay 50-50 if the usage has been 90-10.</p>