I almost never use a credit card, and instead use debit. OTOH, I always know how much is there—part of the beauty of debit cards is that assuming you don't use checks, you always have a current running balance with no work. Spend $100, balance drops $100.
I certainly see your point about money disappearing, however. Our bank has pretty good breakdowns of spending by payee, so we can look at a glance at food, entertainment, etc, and see how it goes on a monthly basis, and to whom.
Could be worse, when you are older you'll have to blow thousands on stuff like window replacement (me, tomorrow :/ ). Loads spent, and when done, it'll look exactly the same as it did before. Don't have anything to show
