How to Save $$ on the Apple Ecosystem during a RECESSION

I know the title with the whole  recession thing sounds crazy, so give me a   chance to explain, but regardless of whether  we’re going into a recession right now or not,   it’s always a good idea to be budgeting  wherever you can, especially if you still   love Apple products and want to stay in  the ecosystem while also saving some cash.

So what I’ll be doing in this article is going  through each category of Apple products and   giving you guys some really good tips  and options to save a LOT of cash,   but first, I’ve gotta explain  the whole recession thing.

It’s no secret that inflation has been putting  pressure on regular people around the world,   with prices of everything going higher and higher  including food, gasoline, everyday products,   services, cars, utilities,  rent, housing, and more. And to make things worse, Diesel prices have  recently been skyrocketing in the past week   which is putting a huge strain on  truckers who transport basically   all of our food and goods  to the stores we buy from,   which means that they have to pass the extra  cost along to other business and consumers.

For example, Amazon just announced a 5% fuel  and inflation surcharge for sellers, which means   that they’ll be raising the prices of basically  everything on Amazon to cover that extra cost. And because of that,   it seems like things could be getting worse  in the near future for various reasons.

First of all, other countries are  reporting even worse inflation than us,   like over 30% in the eurozone and  70% inflation in Turkey, YES 70%! On top of that, the China  lockdowns are continuing,   which means more supply shortages  which will continue to inflate prices. Even Apple recently reported their earnings   and mentioned that they could lose up to 8  billion dollars due to the China lockdowns.

The Federal Reserve also just had their FOMC  meeting where they said that there are further   risks of inflation due to the China lockdowns,  which is one of the reasons they raised interest   rates by half a percentage point, the first time  in 22 years that the rates were hiked this much. And Jerome Powell says that they’re  just getting started with the hikes,   with more 50 basis point hikes on the  table for the next couple of meetings. And while we had a huge rally in the stock market  as soon as Jerome announced the hike, all of it   and more was lost the very next day because we  got the worst US productivity report since 1947.

Now to explain the significance of the rate  hikes, it’s basically going to slow down   the economy because higher rates mean that  it becomes more expensive to borrow money,   so anything purchased with a  loan will get more expensive. And what this basically leads to is lowered  demand for buying things including tech products,   which Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo has already  been seeing in terms of the global smartphone   market for months, which could lead to  people getting laid off from their jobs,   bringing us closer to an official  recession coming sooner than expected.

In fact, a recent CNBC poll shows 80% of small  businesses are expecting to see a recession   this year, which is why the small business section   has laid off 105,000 total employees  in the first quarter of the year. And it’s not just small businesses, we are  now seeing reports of Facebook and amazon   doing hiring freezes, and even  Apple has reportedly frozen hiring   of genius bar employees, and the only reason  it makes sense for anyone to stop hiring   is because they expect sales to go down this  year, potentially because of a recession.

And what basically starts to happen when we have  news headlines of recession risks, that’s when   people start saving money and budgeting, which  is basically why I decided to make this post. And in terms of how close we  are to going into a recession,   we’re actually 50% of the way there, because  the US economy actually contracted or went   negative in the 1st quarter of 2022 compared to  last year, so if Q2 is also gonna be negative,   then we’ll officially be in a  recession the first half of this year. And according to JP Morgan Chase’s  CEO Jamie Dimon, he sees a 33%   chance of a mild recession, and 33% chance  of a severe recession, so that’s a 66%   chance of recession according to the  CEO of the biggest bank in the US.

But of course, we might completely avoid a  recession and not have anything to worry about,   but just in case you’re thinking of ways  to save money on the Apple ecosystem,   let’s get into some tips and  great deals on Apple products.

First of all, whatever you’re buying,  you should definitely be buying it from   Amazon instead of Apple’s website because Apple  NEVER has sale prices on their website, compared   to Amazon which routinely has some really amazing  deals as I’ll show you over the next few minutes!

Getting started, if you’re looking to upgrade  your iPhone, you can now find a fully unlocked,   renewed iPhone 12 for just $496 which is a KILLER  deal because you have up to 90 days to return it   if you change your mind, and the iPhone  12 features the new flat-sided redesign   and one of my favorite iPhone features ever,  MagSafe, which I use literally every day for   charging, mounting my iPhone in my car and for  my MagSafe wallet which is really convenient. And speaking of MagSafe accessories, instead  of buying Apple’s MagSafe charger for $39   and their 20W USB-C power adapter for $19,   a total of $58, you can literally just  buy Anker’s MagSafe charger that comes   bundled with a 20W adapter for only $22 right  now if you’re okay with the 7.5W charging speeds.

And instead of going on Apple’s website to  buy a MagSafe car vent mount for $40 to $60,   you should be buying THIS one for $27 because it  comes bundled with everything you need including   the MagSafe wireless charger, the power cable,  and the power adapter.. Which I personally use   in both of my cars because it’s my  all-time favorite iPhone accessory ever.

Moving forward, Apple sells an expensive  $59 MagSafe wallet, but this one is only $24   and it features MUCH stronger magnets  compared to the weak ones in Apple’s wallet,   which is the #1 complaint about it.

Now before I move on to the best ways to save on   Macs, I want to mention that you can buy  a 6-foot Anker USB-C to lightning cable   for only $15 instead of paying  Apple $29 for their 6-foot cable.

First of all, if you’re thinking of buying a  new Mac, I fully believe that the M1 MacBook   Air for $950 on Amazon is by far the  best bang for the buck Mac of all time,   due to the M1 chip being more than  powerful enough for most people,   as well as having absolutely insane battery  life and not having a fan that will lead to   dust clogging the inside of the MacBook,  which means it’ll be reliable for years! And yes, we are expecting the redesigned  M2 MacBook Air later this year,   but it’s also gonna come with a price increase,  likely starting at $1200, so if you’re trying   to save money, you should honestly just buy  the M1 model right now while it’s on sale.

And if you’re looking for a more powerful  MacBook, I honestly believe that the base   $2,000 14” MacBook Pro is more than fast  enough for a lot of the people out there that   use productivity apps like photo editing, music  production, programming, video editing, and more!

Read also: Internal & External MacBook Issues: 11 Potential Fixes

But let’s say you already have the M1 MacBook  Air and the main reason you want to upgrade   to the new MacBook Pro is because of the  extra ports, I would instead buy an Anker   USB-C hub for $60 to get those extra ports  instead of buying a whole new MacBook Pro! And in my opinion, one of the best ways to save  on Macs is to save on the internal storage cost,   so instead of paying Apple $400 to upgrade  your MacBook Air to 1TB of storage,   you can buy the reliable  Samsung T5 1TB external SSD   for only $100, or upgrade to  the faster T7 for just $15 more.

Moving on to ways to save on the iPad  ecosystem, the current budget iPad   is $20 off which is pretty good because the  storage space doubled to 64GB with the model,   making it a great deal, and if you  want a more modern-looking iPad,   you’ve of course got the new iPad mini  which is currently $100 off right now.

But if you’re looking for a crazy  good deal on a 12.9” iPad Pro,   here’s a renewed 2018 model with  the flat-sided modern design   and 256GB of storage for only $539, which  is probably the best deal I've seen!

And in terms of accessories, instead of paying  Apple $100 or even $129 for the Apple Pencil,   you can buy the Logitech Crayon for only $61  right now, which actually supports almost every  iPad including the iPad 9th  gen and the new iPad mini 6!

And instead of buying Apple’s Magic  Keyboard for the iPad Air and iPad Pro   for $300, you can get the Logitech Folio  Touch for the iPad Air for only $145,   or the iPad Pro version for $160, and both of them  support all of Apple’s unique trackpad gestures   just like the Magic Keyboard  thanks to smart connector support.

Now in terms of AirPods, you can now get a  basic set of 2nd-gen AirPods for only $100,   which is the best price ever, or if you  want the Pros, they’re only $175 right now   which is a great deal because they’re  much better than the new AirPods 3.

Moving on to the Apple Watch, Amazon currently  has some of the best sales right now, including   a brand new Apple Watch SE for only $229 which I  think is the best one to buy if you’re on a budget   because it comes with almost all of the  best features for the lowest possible price. Or if you really want the best in  class Series 7, it’s currently $70 off,   so only $329 which is probably the best  price I’ve ever seen on the latest model. And if you think you have to buy Apple’s expensive  watch bands, you don’t! T

here are a ton of great   options on Amazon that are much less expensive,  like this one for $13 which is rated very   well with positive reviews, instead of paying  Apple $100 for their solo braided loop bands.