FWIW, there are studies showing that people who use plastic, be it credit or debit cards, spend more. Seeing the actual green backs leaving one’s possession does have an impact.
I didn’t believe it either until I tried it for a month.
I've read this before and I addressed it in the post you were responding to:
Since my family is disciplined to pay off the card each month...when we use the card it's emotionally the same as using cash since we know that we're going to be writing a check to pay that purchase off when the current billing cycle closes.
I guess I should mention that the bulk of the card purchases each month are just your typical household spending: phone bill, Internet bill, propane bill, gasoline, etc. It's hard to imagine that I'm spending more my Internet service (for example) simply because I use VISA to pay for it instead of writing a check. The studies that you and Dave reference are dealing with people making more discretionary purchases which make up a small portion of our monthly charges on the card.
Again, it's all about using tools safely.
I totally hear you on that one.