Printer Ink

We do quite a lot of printing at home. The ink cartridges don't seem to last a long time. I remember Josh had an ink cartridge for the better part of a year in college and didn't run out. That is amazing. We go through several in a years time. Our printer takes one black and one color cartridge. Every time we change them out the computer wants to print a test page. I don't know how to prevent that. I wish I did because we use the ink more quickly when test pages are printed.