I’ve talked about savings creep before. And while I’ve touched on lifestyle creep here and there, I’ve never dedicated a full blog to it. So what is it, exactly? And is it always a bad thing?

What Is Lifestyle Creep?

Lifestyle creep is lifestyle inflation. It happens when you earn more … and spend more as a result. It can even happen when you don’t earn more but find yourself spending more … and saving less.

A common way for lifestyle inflation to creep in is when you fail to save more after a salary increase. Sure, that 10% going into your 401(k) is now a higher dollar amount than it used to be due to your compensation boost. But if you’re doing the same percentage of saving that you used to and spending all of the rest, your spending has now increased, too.

On the flip side, maybe you haven’t seen a pay increase. As regular inflation increases and you pay more for basics, your spending senses can dull. You might get used to spending additional dollars on necessities and then start spending more on other things, too. That’s lifestyle creep setting in.

When Is Lifestyle Creep Bad?

Of course, receiving a pay raise is certainly not a bad thing. But letting your savings and increased spending ride after one can be. Lifestyle creep is especially detrimental when lifestyle expenses start to cut into savings.

If you’ve started to notice that your expenses are increasing and your savings are decreasing, it’s not too late. You’ve already taken the first step simply by noticing it! Now, you can turn it around with a few behavioral budget changes.

How Can You Avoid Lifestyle Creep?

If you guessed that you can avoid lifestyle creep via your cash-flow plan, you’re onto something. We tend to collectively think that we’ll spend more with each coming year. As inflation affects the price of necessities, it impacts other expenses, too. Think of your annual vacation: Has it gotten more expensive to take the same trip year after year? Probably. But we might also be letting lifestyle creep set in there, too!

You might also notice lifestyle creep coming into certain budget categories. One that I let get out of hand last year: Dining out. 2025 was the first year that my partner and I combined finances. Even after more than a decade together, we didn’t have our money figured out. And uniting our money made both of us feel like we had more to spend … so we did!

I look at it this way: Last year, we tracked our spending. This year, we’re following a cash-flow plan. We’re turning the overspending around this year by making a concerted effort to spend less on dining out. We’re also watching our overall living expenses. With a quick check of our calendar and how much we’ve already spent this month, making a decision on whether to dine out on a whim is now an informed choice.

If you haven’t been tracking your spending, that’s a good place to begin. You might be surprised. And even if you’re not, you’ll have the data you need to reduce any lifestyle spending that’s creeping up.

If you’ve been tracking your spending, you’ve already got data on hand. From there, review your budget and set measurable, achievable goals. Combine them with tools you already have to reduce spending, like …

• Leaving items in your online shopping cart before completing purchases to make sure you really want the items.
• Reviewing your calendar prior to making unplanned purchases.
• Rescheduling events as needed when cash flow is running low.
• “Forcing” yourself to save by increasing your retirement plan contributions or setting up automatic withdrawals so you have less excess cash flow readily available.

Most importantly, remember that one “off” month isn’t going to wreck your budget. It’s all about minor improvements that you can build upon — and averages. So if you’ve overspent last month, see what you can reduce this month, knowing that you’ll have a bit more wiggle room next month.

Need a hand making some changes so you can avoid lifestyle creep — and maybe even rewind it a bit, too? Schedule a cash-flow planning consultation! We’ll use Monarch or your preferred cash-flow planning tool to identify a few areas where your spending has been controlling you. We’ll then build your toolkit of helpful hints so you can reduce spending in one to three key areas at a time so you can avoid lifestyle creep. Together, we’ll work toward you controlling your spending, instead of the other way around.