I think this is ignoring that different approaches to budgeting are needed for different people. For me, I have a Monzo account that I put my monthly "disposab

I think this is ignoring that different approaches to budgeting are needed for different people. For me, I have a Monzo account that I put my monthly "disposable" income in. Monzo is a (mostly) UK digital bank with a good app that gives instant feedback on transactions. This means that after every transaction, Monzo tells me "you have £X left this month". This allows me to regulate my spending (e.g. not buy X until next month) if I've spent a lot of my budget half way through the month. It also means that when I'm spending a lot I can go and look at my transaction history for the last few months and work out where it's going so I know what spending to moderate. With cash that's just a black hole. Also, I just find cash to be a pain to deal with and have basically eliminated it from my life. You have to regularly visit machines to make sure you've got some, you have to carry it around (notes are fine, coins are annoying), you have to faff when paying to give and receive the correct change.