this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

The other day Bug (who's five) told me that we didn't have to worry about saving money since we already bought our new car. You see, he wanted this new car as much as my husband and I did, so anytime he wanted to do something that involved spending money, I'd throw out the "easy" reason and tell him that we needed to save money for our new car. It worked in all kinds of situations, when he wanted to stop for lunch after running errands, or if he was mad at me for walking to pick him up from school as opposed to driving (drive less means spending less money on gas, I'd tell him). I'd simply tell him we needed to save money for the new car and he'd accept it with no argument.

Now I need to come up with something new, or better yet, just explain to him that we don't always need to spend money on whatever he wants.

What do you say to your young children when they want to buy something that you aren't going to buy? Tell them you don't have enough money? Tell them you need to save your money? Explain that sometimes you buy things and sometimes you don't? Please share!