How do you say "It's no problem" in this scenario?

asperience · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject:

Here's a situation where I'm looking for help on how to word what I want to say, to come across as friendly but not too friendly.

My sister and I have recently become close, as I've been coming over to her house to help with a project about once a week, and she has been sometimes making me meals and such.

In the past, she has had issues with cell phone "addiction"; she is NT and likes to talk a lot and has had to get rid of her cell phone because the bills were just too high, so she no longer has a cell phone.

Recently she came out to visit near me. I have a spare cell phone that costs me 7 cents a minute to use, and I loaned it to her for the few days she was here in order to facilitate her meeting up with me and other people.

In the past when I have loaned her the cell phone, I've had her pay for the calls she made with it. But this time since she has been making me meals and such, I decided I wanted to offer the use as a gift, not requiring her to pay me back. At the same time I didn't want to give her carte blanche to talk for hours and hours on end.

Here's what I ended up saying to her, that felt just a little too specific or quid pro quo to be really friendly: "The cost is 7 cents a minute, so don't gossip for hours on end, but feel free to use it as you like. [she offers to pay for the calls] You've been making me meals and such so I'm happy to let you use it without any reimbursement".

What feels sort of unfriendly is the idea that I'm only letting her use if free because she is making meals for me. I'd like to find a way to be gracious without making it conditional on anything she's doing. But I don't want to be too gracious that she expects to use the cell phone all the time or make long calls on it. Any suggestions for how to word my offer to be considerate in that way?