Getting you business supplies cheap is a lot more important that you are probably aware. Especially on low price, small, replenish able items such as pencils, paper and envelopes. These items are the silent assassins of the office budget. Although on the face of it you may only be paying a small amount for each of these items you are in fact shelling out a great deal of money over a long period of time. The thing is you don't notice it until you take the time to add up your expenditure over a long period of time. For example you may think that paying 12p for an envelope is reasonable - it is.

But if you are sending out a 1000 envelopes per month even a tiny saving on each could save you a considerable amount of money. For example 1000 envelopes per month at the cost of 12p each would cost you 120 pounds. If you managed to find envelopes for only 10p per item it would save you more. This might not look like a massive saving initially. But over a month a saving of 2p per item will save you 20 pounds over a year it represents a saving of 240 pounds.

Imagine you make this kind of saving on a number of your replenish able items and you will soon make a considerable dent on your budget. So what kind of items could you be making savings on? Here is a number of the best items to save money on.

Pens

Keeping a track on how many pens your office uses and how much you spend per year replenishing them is really important. Making sure that your employees values their pens and don't see them as a disposable item is a great first step for saving money. Many people don't see how much it costs to waste pens. They will use them and constantly raid the store cupboard for more pens without thinking about how much this might cost over time.

This is especially important when you think that a single pen could probably last a whole year if the person using it was sure not to lose it or misplace it. Another method of reducing wasteful costs is to give your employees good quality pens. That way they may not see them as disposable and although it might cost more at the outset it will probably save you money in the long run.

Pencils

The fact that some companies still pay out lots of money on pencils is extremely alarming. Especially because people rarely keep them sharpened and do not get a full life out of them. If your staff members are using up hundreds of pencils be sure that they are not being wasteful and that they are using them until they are very short. After all a small saving in the short run can save you loads of money in the long run.

Dry markers

One of the biggest causes of waste in your office supplies is when the white board pens are put away without the lid being replaced. This causes them to dry out quickly and as a result they run out quickly. In the short term this might not look like a big loss of money but it is ultimately unnecessary. Look after your dry marker pens and you will save money. Because these items are used in large numbers, you are likely to purchase a number of different colours at one time, be sure to shop around to find deals that will save you money.