Bugeting: Is It Non-Existant???

Good Morning. This picture is not at all related to my post but my little Tess kitty is cute and had apparently decided she wanted to be my mothers birthday gift!

Yesterday I was listening to the radio on my way to work as usual and the people who do the morning mention interesting little bits of news. That morning they were talking about these wallets that a company created so people can be more aware of their bank balance or spend. Basically there were 3 types discussed. These wallets are some how connected to your bank account and the 1st wallet gets bigger as you balance increases and smaller as your balance decreases, the second vibrates when you make a purchase and the bigger the purchase the longer it vibrates and the third has a hinge that gets harder and harder to open as your balance goes down. I could not believe! I certainly understand there is a whole psychology around it being easier for people to spend more on plastic (ie: debit/credit cards) than to spend the physical cash, people are more reluctant to part with it when dealing in cash. However what has become of us that we can not even be aware of how much money we have in the bank! What ever happened to making a budget! I have an excel workbook that I use to track everything, right down to if I should buy a cup of coffee, I track how much I withdraw and what bills will come out when, then I keep track of how much and on what I have been spending my cash. It's not hard, it doesn't take long and once you start it feels good to know exactly where every cent had gone and it becomes kind of fun. We are not children who need to be told by a gadget (that by the way cost you money to buy) that your bank account balance is going down when you spend! I mean really!