And I disagree with your methodology. :) Impulsive or not, humans are bad at estimating. The purpose of explicit shopping lists and cash only budgeting is to,

And I disagree with your methodology. :) Impulsive or not, humans are bad at estimating. The purpose of explicit shopping lists and cash only budgeting is to, first, cap spending to a predetermined amount, making a budget much easier to adhere to, and second, eliminate the temptation to cheat. Does everyone need these tools to help enforce discipline? Maybe not. But given the average amount of savings and debt out there, I'm gonna guess most can benefit from any help they can get. In essence, your argument is "people should just be smarter". Evidence shows that kind of simplistic, idealistic approach just doesn't work.