All a tablet does is give you better pen control. If you're using Photoshop, master the pen tool, since it'll basically save you eons of frustration until you can get a proper tablet. Stick to the take pictures/scan and then pen-tool ink it. It'll take a lot of trial and error, but once you get it, it'll come in handy quite often I assure you.

I recommend, if you're strapped for money, grabbing a monoprice tablet (only if you use windows) or a Wacom Bamboo Fun since theyre both very affordable and will last you a long, long time.

Chibi Abe! Can you do gabbits?

Hi grimGadabout! That's really cute :) I like the eye-and headshape in the scetch and the tiny stitches. I'd really like to see more! Maybe a gabbit like Gunnr said.

I will differ with some of the opinions above, and would totally recommend investing in a drawing tablet. They have those smaller sizes like A5 that are cheaper, and maybe you can find one used. I've personally fallen in love with tablets.

No way! In my opinion you just need a day or two to adjust your hand feel (and that you have to look at the monitor and not where your pen is) and you've mastered the tablet. It's much easier to publish your art, and with photoshop you can try painting with different brushes without expensive equipment and weird paint smells.
And of course there's your best friend ctrl+Z, heh.

When inking pictures, it's easy to lose some nice, smooth lines when you look at the scetch too much and the inked lines become rigid. Just for this reason, sometimes in my drawings I like the scetch better than my first inked version, and have to modify some lines to be smoother. With photoshop it's usually faster to reiterate some linework. :)