So you need something right now, but you're on a tight budget. Personally, I consider a tight budget to be $500 or less when it comes to portable computing. Even that's a bit high nowadays, but lets roll with it. I'm mostly going to address new products. Refurbished are an option, but my experience with them has been hit or miss. I will say that I've tended to notice any serious issues within the warranty period. I'll also note that I've never paid for a laptop. People tend to just give me old or broken ones for free, which I then fix up and use. It's old tech, but if it works, it works ^_^