It is never a disgrace to say, ‘I can not afford it.’ It is shameful to commit yourself to expenditure you know you can not really afford and should not make – just because someone else urges you to go against your own better judgment. I have respect for the person for who can say without any self-consciousness at all, simply and cheerfully, ‘I can not afford it.’ But I hate to hear a long-drawn-out explanation of why .