Ha, it's true, the limit enforced by a debit card is handy. I love my wife dearly, but her spending habit is 'if it is in the account, I can spend it.' So after trying various strategies, we just settled on keeping a debit account specifically for routine household purchases, groceries, etc. It is budgeted exactly what we plan for, not a dollar more, and she knows that when it's gone it's gone. That's not strictly true, of course, we replenish if we buy a lot of groceries in a month, but it serves as a useful signal for her that she's spending more than the generous amount we budgeted for this purpose.