Apple
There's a store on Apple's website that's hard to find, but it's the best place to find Apple products for a discount.
I'm talking about Apple's Refurbished Mac store, where you can find a variety of used Apple products that have been refurbished by the company itself. You get a 15% discount, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's still a few hundred dollars off the price tag of a brand new model - and that's an extra few hundred dollars in your pocket that you wouldn't have if you went with a brand-new unit.
I'm aware that the word "refurbished" might put some people off, but if my fantastic experience with a refurbished 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro is anything to go by, there's nothing to worry about.
Apple's refurbished laptops are especially smart to consider right now. Apple has started selling refurbished units of its 2018 lineup, which come with the most important update for Apple laptops in years: Intel's latest 8th-generation of chips.
Intel's 8th-generation of chips is meaningful. So meaningful, in fact, that I'd dissuade most people from buying Mac laptops with older generations of Intel chips, especially in the 13-inch models, whether they're brand new or refurbished.
That's because Intel's 8th-generation of chips in Mac laptops contain four or more cores. For those who use Macs for regular work with more or less "basic" apps like Microsoft's Office Suite, office messaging apps, and a web browser, it means better longevity for your Mac. It'll potentially give your MacBook longer legs by handling your workload for a longer time period than Mac laptops with older Intel chips that come with two cores.
And for those using video and photo editing software, four cores or more mean faster and smoother editing.
Check out how you can get your hands on a 2018 MacBook Pro that's been refurbished by Apple itself, and what to look out for: