While that sounds crazy on the surface, it really isn't. For one thing, your necessary household expenses (rent, food, utilities, etc.) don't generally scale linearly with your individual income; your expenses don't double when your income does. For another, absolute value, not just percentage, matters. Spending an extra $240 a year matters a lot if you're making $25K; if you're making $150K, it matters, well, less.

I always heard adages and advice about "watching pennies." In practice, though, I've found that I'm far better off looking after the pounds and not worrying about the pennies: that is to say, set up savings targets that get treated like necessary expenses, and to not worry too much whether lunch is $7 or $12.

I totally agree, and usually do. My wife was not happy about spending $240 on Phish :) My point is that it is very complicated to track everything. My household of 5, my businesses, my recreation. I guess the way to wrap up my gp comment is that Apple could move into this space becoming a major value driver to consumers.

I can imagine it is very hard tracking that!

Is there a way you could split each area to a separate account/card so that you can spot odd spendings? eg. recreation on one, business on another, food on another, fuel on another, general household/mortgage/insurance on another, and then another for miscellaneous ?

Sounds like an opportunity for an app of sorts....