Well, if you use cash, forget it, you can't manage it... If you use cc that's the best.. debit tends to not keep enough detail relative to cc
CC also helps you keep in budget for the month.. you set your credit limit to just a bit over your budget and charge all of your expenses to your cc... then at the end of the month you download the charges to a spreadsheet or whatever sw tool and then you know what's gonig on
