My buddy Steve used to laugh at me for doing the whole cash envelope thing... said I was living in the 1950s. Then his car got repossessed last year and he had to borrow my truck to get to work for two months until he could scrape together a beater. Now he's the one asking me to show him how to set up his own envelopes. He finally paid off his little Honda last week and texted me a picture of the title at 11pm on a Tuesday night. Something about watching somebody else have that moment just confirms the whole method works better than any lecture ever could.
My wife called my cash envelope system "cute" for the first two years. Now she asks me how much is in the grocery envelope before we go to the store. That paid off car feeling is no joke, it's like getting a huge raise every month. I still get looks when I pull out actual cash, but the freedom is worth every single eye roll. Watching that debt disappear was the best joke on me anyway.