Ugh , that ' s hard . I ' m sure he ' s so stubborn and stuck in his habits that he ' d never entertain the idea but he should set himself up an account for his fun money . He could use whatever is in there for whatever he wants using a debit card . Kind of like those Christmas Club accounts that banks used to open . I work for a group of financial advisorsplanners and it is amazing to me how many people take the head in the sand approach to their finances . Like really wealthy people spending $ 2 , 000 $ 5 , 000 more a month than they bring in . Even when you put it on paper and SHOW them they make excuses . Have you thought of doing that , writing all the household money out vs money in ? You could do up some comparisons too , like what things would look like if he paid off $ 5 , 000 of his credit card and then what it would look like at $ 10 , 000 ? He may not listen but then at least he could never claim he doesn ' t know where all his money goes .