And the best thing you’ll be able to do is wait until
someone sells one on craigslist or use a student discount and save a $100 or so. Apple is not really into discounts.
Don’t be afraid to buy refurbished from Apple. I’ve bought every Apple product I own refurbished. Often, they are actually better than the off-the-assembly-line products because they are hand-checked. They also come with the same warranty. That can often save you a couple hundred bucks.
Hm… well, the only thing I can think about is whether you go to a college or not. The one I go to offers them at discounted prices to students and gives a free itouch with it :P
Other than that… you’re probably going to have to shop around and look for stores that offer rebates or are having sales. If not, craigslist or ebay :)
Apple are very strict about their official resellers selling their products for very close to the suggested retail price. The best you can do is to find sites that are offering rebates or sites that include a lot of freebies. For instance, you won’t find $300 off, but you might find a site that throws in a copy of VMWare Fusion, a Windows XP license, and a $100 inkjet printer.
I second @lefteh in buying refurbished. I bought my current MacBook refurbished From Apple. It was practically brand new, and without a scratch. It saved me a good $300 or $400 too. I’ve had it for almost a year and a half and haven’t had a problem with it.