Follow up on my printer rant.
(Quick recap: my printer uses all colours when printing black and white, and it says the cartridge is empty when it isnt at all)

I finally have it figured out.

The current cartridges dont get used (for some reason) and i bought a chip resetter. I just reset the chip of the colour cartridges and I buy a black cartridge every now and then. Essentially making my printer black and white only, just how I like it.