I understand his concern as well. It's easy to get wrapped up in having high credit limits and just go spend crazy. I'm at a much different place in my life now than I was and have a much better grasp on the reality of credit cards and finances as a whole. I've been seeing a lot about YNAB lately. I'm wondering if this is something I should check out, just to help me keep my head on straight with everything. Currently I just use spreadsheets for a lot, but that can be killer on my sanity sometimes. LOL
I highly recommend checking out YNAB. It takes time to set up and more time to tweak it as you go forward and figure out your bills and priorities, but most people that put in the time up front end up later saying it has changed their lives. I frequent the YNAB forum (which is now invisible to the public, so you need a direct link to find it--long story) and I can't tell you how many folks have had life-changing results.
Our personal story is that 3 years ago we had almost $30K in credit card debt alone, thinking we just didn't make enough and couldn't do anything to change our situation. Now, the last of the debt will be gone by March, and we also have an extra $10K to our names. Our incomes didn't really change in that time, just our way of looking at money. We have no interest in going back to that uncertain place, so we are very vigilant about knowing where every penny of our money goes now, whether it's spent or saved for a future need. Every dollar that comes in as income is given a specific purpose in a specific category. And with the mobile apps, we enter every single transaction as we make it, so each category always truly reflects how much is left for that specific purpose. Can you tell I love the software?
You said you currently work with spreadsheets--think of YNAB as a spreadsheet on steroids with a lot of complicated calculations built in.
To sort of get back on topic, now that we've stuck our feet in the credit card churning waters, it has become a little more complicated to keep track of spending, only because we have so many more accounts in YNAB. But since YNAB also accurately reflects how much you've spent and what you owe to each account, it helps me to track and verify my numbers when it comes time to pay the bills. So the bit of extra time I spend updating YNAB ends up paying off in the long run.
Edited to add: The vet called and said Marvin is doing very well right now, and they are cautiously optimistic although we don't know yet what the long term outcome will be. He's staying there at least one more day, and then we'll play it by ear, but I feel much better than I did at this time yesterday when I thought we were losing him.