'K, 'K, I'll be up front this time. No immoral shenanigans. Here's the deal about my 3DS XL situation:
I'm at $145 thanks to Soap and Christmas money, right? A new 3DS XL costs about $215 after tax. I can weasel out about $30 from my father, so that means I have about $40 to go. I am randomly given $20 once every month or two or three (that's usually enough for me because I don't really buy that much stuff). So as things currently stand, that $40 could take quite a while to get. I'm close, though, so I'm definitely sticking to that goal.
The biggest reason for me to just go for the 3DS XL is because the shoulder buttons are of much higher quality (all the buttons are, actually, but the shoulder buttons in particular are much closer to console quality than DS Lite quality). The way I see it, the risk of my getting my current 3DS repaired just to have to pay $85 again 2 years later is just way too high; my 3DS definitely wasn't defective or anything, so it would likely eventually happen again. Also, the screen on my current one has those screen scratches, and if I wanted that fixed that'd probably add on a significant figure to the repair bill.
Anyways, how long it will take me to get that $$ will depend on various things. But there you have it; that's the exact situation I'm in. I could probably get a used one within a month or so, though, because I'd just need one $20. Wish me luck!
EDIT: No, wait, I think I've got this. Just gimme a couple weeks.