You don’t have to pay full price for a MacBook if you know these tricks

Apple stores don't really do sales, but there are ways to save money

It's not always easy and discounts can come with a lot of fine print

I want to cut through all of that for you and quickly go through what you should know

to find a deal on Mac computers, iPads, and all sorts of Apple gear

And that's because, coming close here, there's no reason to pay full price right now

Yes, things are more expensive. I know, it feels like the worst time ever to buy a computer with all of these price increases

and I'm out here doing a show every week about expensive Apple computers

Like and subscribe, please. We are in back-to-school sale time. Everyone wants a student discount, but not everyone's a student

So here's a guide for saving money on Apple gear. First, let's go over how discounts work at Apple retail stores and on Apple.com

because, yes, it is nice to buy from Apple. It's a nice experience

But this is not where you find things on sale. Apple does give some students and teachers better prices on a few items, but you can usually find better sales outside Apple

That said, if you do want an education discount at Apple, here's what you need to know

It works year round. You have to prove you're a college student or that you work in a college

It is not for K through 12 students, but it is for anyone working at a K through 12 school

Also counts for homeschool teachers. They qualify. And also it qualifies for parents who are officers of the PTA Yeah they get the discount So if you just wait for the school year to start for your kids and then you join the PTA and become an officer I guess that one way to maybe save

$100 on a laptop. Right now, Apple has a back-to-school promotion that along with that same

education discount, it throws in on top of it a gift card. If you buy a MacBook Pro or a MacBook

Air or an iPad Pro or an iPad Air. There's no gift card for the MacBook Neo. This is actually

marketed for students going to college. It's in all of Apple's messaging. Apple extended the gift

card promotion until September 24th. If you are going to take advantage of it, and yes, the same

rules apply. You need to be in college as a student or you have to work in education. Now to find the

lower prices, you have to go to Apple's Education Store page. Apple Online uses this verification

system. It's called Unidays. They ask for a school email address or you have to upload a school ID

It's a whole process. So I'll tell you what, let's find an easier way to save money. Start by looking

at back to school sales at other retail stores and places like Amazon. You know, instead of giving an

Apple gift card, I saw Best Buy is just selling the MacBooks at $150 or $100 off. Yeah, it's still

not as good as the education full discount, but you don't need to prove that you're a student. So

that's a win. I normally would say find a store selling last year's model and that's usually

cheaper but it getting much harder to even find the older models sold anymore I not seeing sales on the MacBook Neo right now which is disappointing The MacBook Neo is the laptop everyone wants right now for school Even Apple in its earnings call

mentioned a few school districts that were ditching Chromebooks and Windows machines

and instead buying up Nios. Now, there are some minor discounts you might find for the Neo

For example, Costco members, they can get $10 off the Neo. Ooh, baby, go get yourself a few hot

dogs with those savings. If you have a Target Circle credit card, they offer a 5% discount on

a Neo, which cuts down about 35 bucks. It's still not for everyone. Instead, I want you to look at

refurbished Macs. And yes, Apple even sells refurbished. Go to apple.com slash shop slash

refurbished. These are certified products with a one-year warranty. And this is where you're

going to find a MacBook Neo for about $100 off at $599. That is the education price without needing

to be in education. And you can also get good discounts here on last year's MacBook Air with

the M4 chip. No one's going to know it's not the M5 chip. You won't even be able to tell. But if

you're upgrading from an M1 or M2, yeah, you're going to notice it's better. Refurbished products

get cleaned and they have all the accessories and cables repackaged in a brand new box. It is a

And I think Apple will be pushing more customers down this path, not just because things are more expensive

but because Apple will get more used inventory due to the new upgrade program You can now pay for many types of Apple products in monthly installments and upgrade anytime by trading in your old device

That means Apple will be getting more of year-old products to resell

and customers will feel less of a pinch to jump into a new machine when the payments are spread out

Apple is also paying out more money for your trading devices. iPhone values went up by about $20 to $30

and Mac computers are also paying out more. You can get up to $260 more

Of course, it depends on the model. All that said, let's say you want to buy a MacBook Neo

but it's hard to find any discounts. Here's what you can also do

I want you to find satisfaction in buying cheaper accessories. Satachi makes these USB-C hubs

that include all of the extra ports that you're missing on the Neo

And these come in all the Neo colors, citrus, blush, indigo. And guess what? Amazon does cut a few bucks off the MSRP. They also make

a matching wireless mouse. But if that's too much, Logitech always has cheaper mice. They come in

many soft pink varieties to match your Neo. This one here I like. It's the signature model

It's got a luxurious feel and it's on sale on Amazon for around 20 bucks. So there you go

This is one more thing to show on all things Apple. If you found this helpful, I hope you

subscribe because I'm just trying to stay sane and save money in this world like you

And maybe I'm going to have to wait until Black Friday to buy my kids a new iPad because I do

not have time to join the PTA