-snip-
Did your parents buy your sister's iPod? Can't you guilt them into buying you one, too? *shrug*
Not sure how not 'trusting' them comes into the equation. I don't trust the sweatshop workers who make my underwear, yet I still stick my nude, sweaty self into them every day. I haven't died. Yet.
Nope, she saved up the cash herself.
Trusting: I don't approve of how Apple tries to rake in all the money for itself. (read: I'm a beardless linux-maniac neckbeard)
(So I'm a neck obsessed with linux, I guess)
Anyway, I don't really understand that mindset. What, does he think you're just collecting video games, and any old video to add to it will do? :I
I tried to convince him otherwise once. I made an argument something along the lines of:
Dad: *rants about how I have enough video games already*
Me: "They're sorta like movies and books. Imagine Robert Jordan came back from the dead to continue writing books. Would you stop buying them because you have 'enough Robert Jordan books'?"
Dad: *rants about how video games aren't books*
It's just a losing battle. I'm probably going to start having to cough up my own money, tax included, before I finish high school. (I mean, before, I'd take the bulk, and my mom would cover tax, along with the off chance I misjudged the price by a dollar or two.)
At least I have free roguelikes, insanely difficult old NES games (The first ever Batman game is a classic example!), and outdated tabletop RPGs with Bay12 in case I'm too poor at some point to manage.
Right, so here's what I advise. Prefacing, of course, with the knowledge that it could backfire if you aren't careful.
First, completely drop asking for video games. Then, figure out on average what your family spends on certain stuff for you over the course of a year or so. Breaking it down into categories of things like clothing, entertainment, junk food, and things like that. Then, figure out which categories won't result in immediate death if horribly mismanaged, excluding those which would (things like healthy/staple food items). Then, figure out which of those you think you could optimize the costs for to save money. Eating less expensive junk food, buying less new clothing, ect. Those are the categories you will want to take over control of; those which you could modify spending habits on and which you can't screw up to the point where anything really bad happens.
Then, take those rough figures to your parents (who are likely already aware of them, and have probably budgeted for them with a more accurate estimate than you) and request to take up financial responsibility for those categories. Not increasing anything or any monetary costs to them; simply reallocating the responsibility to yourself. If they are still hesitant, suggest stipulations like "50% of the saved money will go into a long term savings account for college/ect." You can then minmax those categories to your liking to get left over spending money each month.
So long as you ensure you aren't highballing the figure, they don't have good incentives not to do this. You just have to be careful they don't lowball the figure too much. But all in all, someone with nothing better to do than minmax their spending habits will be able to significantly cut costs for such categories of goods as clothing and junk food will be quite capable of saving a lot of money over a parent buying whatever stuff happened to look good at walmart for them.
Just asking for video games or such outright is basically saying "Hey, you know that budget you carefully crafted so you would have enough left over for your hobbies and entertainment? I want to take some of your leftover hobby and entertainment money." They have no incentive whatsoever to do that. Whereas with this plan, they don't suffer monetarily, while giving you what you want and reducing stress from them needing to think about and consider your needs for clothing, snacks, ect. And ensuring their kid has a good understanding of budgeting, finance, and responsibility for them tends to be a plus for the sort of parents who worry about their children having too many video games.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14903783 times)