Ask Sam letter

Hi there,

Thanks for writing to me. Money problems can happen to anyone, but can feel particularly hard when they stop us from doing or having things that everyone around us seems to take for granted.

I can hear how important it feels to have an expensive brand new phone, but something to think about is that people who really value us don’t judge us based on what we own. It would be wrong of anyone in your year group to treat you differently over what phone you have. It could be helpful to think about the other ways that you could keep in touch with people, such as emailing them or talking online.

Perhaps you could talk to your family about how you’re feeling and let them know how much you’d really like to have one of the phones you’ve talked about. That way maybe you could explore with them whether it’s possible for a few members of the family to all put money towards a new phone for you when it gets to a special occasion - like you birthday, for example.

You’ve said you can’t get a job, which is true as you need to be a little older first – but there’s no law saying you can’t do odd jobs for family or neighbours. You could talk to your family to see if there are safe ways to make money around your neighbourhood doing things like washing cars or mowing lawns.

You can always chat with a ChildLine counsellor to get more support by calling for free on 0800 1111, logging on for a 1-2-1 chat or sending an email. You might also want to have a look at our page that offers some more information on Money and jobs.

Take care,
Sam.