Do You Need to Talk?

Yesterday my son begged me for a new phone. What?? He just got his first phone about 6 months ago and now he's asking for a new one - with email - an IPhone? My first response was an absolute no, how wasteful. On second thought, I began to see it as a bargaining tool. Another no-car family I read about used this as a tool to entice their kids to go car-free. The financial rule of no new expenses without dropping old expenses may apply here.

How much have we saved so far going without a car? What if we could get through the entire winter without a car? Maybe it's time to keep track of savings. And our family is trying to be more world-centric, trying to get used to the idea of living in a global economy and traveling more. We 've talked about visiting our friends in Germany, using the money we've saved, if we can make it till Christmas. So the proposition of a new phone is not so out of order. What else should you be doing but checking your email and connecting with people on the way home, stuck in the traffic? At least on the bus, you can feel no guilt about multitasking...

I told my son this morning, we'd give it some more thought. My answer to everything lately!