As a few others have stated, I think it all starts with your savings rate.
IMHO, if you're saving more than 40% and you've projected that you're on your way to meeting your goals, buy yourself a freakin' iPhone 6 already, if that's what you want!
And yes, I am buying one. I will eat chili out of a can. I will ride my bike seven miles on harrowing streets to meet an ex-colleague for lunch. And yes, I will buy myself an iPhone 6. I use it all the time. It is my research, note taking, education, and music entertainment pal. No, I don't use it much to talk on the phone. Or to text.
It is among my very few indulgences.
Choices, indeed. It's great that everyone can make their own. I save a lot more than 40%, and I'd never eat chili out of a can. Or almost anything out of a can, that doesn't require preparation. I will cook my own meals, invite friends when I can, and go to a restaurant when they ask me, because hey, it's not the end of the world if it happens once every three weeks or so. As for iThings, well, they don't improve my life as much, so I'd gladly avoid them.
One interesting thing I noticed is that as a kid I was favoring "durable" versus "consumable" (e.g. toys over food). I didn't want to have something I could "go through" and would "finish", and I wanted to hold on to things "forever". Of course the value of durable toys and objects fades, as you grow up.
As an adult I value "experience" (including food, travel, etc) over objects, and in a sense experience is the ultimate consumable (and most often it's not an object at all), but on the other hand it's what remains with you most (imho), you don't need space to store it, you don't risk losing it, breaking it, having it stolen, etc.
That puts me in the interesting position of not wanting any consumer electronics, as they're the worst of both worlds. They are a very durable object, but they become useless pretty fast, as you are pressured to upgrade to the latest and greatest, and they just sit there to take dust and become quickly worse.
I would have perhaps enjoyed the iPhone for a while if I had one. And maybe the iPhone2, 3, 4, 5, 6 plus some of the ones with letters in between. And at the end of it having had all of them makes you spend a huge amount over the years. Skipping some is better, but then if I can skip one, I can also skip all! :) :)
That said, again, it's just my personal opinion, and to each his own. I just felt like sharing it.