Episode 82: Managing Lifestyle Creep: How to Keep Your Spending in Check

Have you ever made a smallupgrade to your lifestyle, only to realize it comes with a domino effect of extra costs? Yeah, we’ve all been there. In this week’s episode of Babies and Business, Avram and Rachel are talking about lifestyle creep—how one simple choice, whether it’s a bigger TV or something else, can lead to a cascade of new costs that you didn’t see coming.

They’ll share their own stories of upgrading their lives and accidentally upping their expenses. They’ll also give you the lowdown on how to keep your spending in check while still enjoying the fun stuff. Spoiler: It’s all about making smart choices and knowing what really matters. Tune in now and join the conversation!

Show Notes

Key Highlights from this Episode:

• Avram and Rachel explore how small upgrades can lead to unexpected costs.

• They share their personal story of upgrading their gaming system, which led to more purchases.

• The importance of making conscious, intentional choices to avoid unnecessary spending is discussed.

• They highlight the unintended consequences of lifestyle upgrades in both home and business.

• Avram uses a video game analogy to explain how growth increases maintenance costs.

• Rachel introduces “My Rich Life” from Ramit Sethi, stressing the importance of aligning financial decisions with personal values.

• They talk about how understanding your values helps guide your spending choices.

• The episode emphasizes making intentional choices without feeling deprived.

Mentions & Resources

I Will Teach You to Be Rich – Ramit Sethi’s book focuses on aligning your spending with your values to create a life that feels rich. Rachel and Avram discuss how this approach has helped them make more intentional financial decisions.

Warcraft 3 – A video game that Avram uses to illustrate the concept of “upkeep” costs as you grow a business or household. As your “empire” expands, it becomes harder and more costly to maintain.

Mentioned Episodes

Babies and Business Episode 79 – Rewriting Your Money Story to Build Financial Freedom

Babies and Business Episode 80 – Real vs Aspirational Values: What’s the Difference?

Episode Transcription

Below you will find a transcript of this entire podcast episode. Enjoy!

Avram: Hey, we’re recording on a weekend, which is pretty rare for us. We are in the middle of the 2025 Gonzales Spring Break staycation. The nanny decided to take some time off, so Rachel and I made the same decision to say, well, maybe we don’t do work while she’s gone and do some house stuff.

Rachel: Yeah.

And we prepped work stuff in advance and all the different things that need to continue running while we’re, while we’re not working, us specifically. And it’s been really nice to kind of be present, more present at home and with the boys for extended periods of time.

Avram: Yeah. And then of course we realized the podcast must go on.

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah. We didn’t prep ahead of time for that.

Avram: Right.

Rachel: But we had so many other things that we needed to get done in order to make this possible. We knew that we would be able to squeeze this in

Avram: Yeah.

Rachel: at some point.

Avram: Yeah. The stars aligned. Both boys are napping right now. Let’s get to it. We’ve been having this discussion about what we’ve termed lifestyle creep.

I think it might be a thing. My mind, what lifestyle creep is, is the phenomenon in which you upgrade some part of your life.

Rachel: Yes.

Avram: And then you start to acquire a bunch of other things to match that new up level.

Rachel: Right.

Avram: Um, you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that we’re pretty thrifty people.

Rachel: Yeah.

Avram: You know, we spend things on the stuff that really matters to us and then we always try to maximize everything else. And I think this conversation is sort of an examination of that. Um, what happened in December that first made us realize lifestyle creep is a thing.

Rachel: Well, we got, a Nintendo Switch and we had this TV that was very difficult to see when playing two player on the tv.

And it was, I mean, man, it was hard when you opened the menus and you know, all the stuff. And we ended up buying a gigantic tv.

Avram: Gigantic tv. We’re like, we gotta play this shit out of this on a bigger tv. So even though we had like a 45 or 48 inch,

Rachel: something like that.

Avram: It just was not big enough for our new little hobby.

Rachel: Correct. So

Avram: We went out and bought this giant tv. Then we had to mount it.

Rachel: My brother came over and helped us mount it. When I say help, I mean did

Avram: he did it

Rachel: he put it up

Avram: he did the whole thing. Thanks Walker. Yeah. He, he put that thing up there and then, and then there was, well, you know, then there was, we really like the, the nice controllers.

So let’s get the nice controllers. Well, and then.

You know, this comes with one game, but there, you know, there’s two or three that that would be great to have. And then maybe another one. And maybe another one.

So you know, the Nintendo Switch, which I think would’ve normally been all that initial stuff, like, I don’t know, 500 bucks, something like that.

Rachel: Yeah, something like that

Avram: You know, we ended up buying like a thousand dollars tv. And this that. And we were just laughing because that’s just one example of lifestyle creep and it is everywhere.

Rachel: And it’s like the unintended consequence of a choice that you have that then leads to other choices that sometimes you can feel obligated to make.

So sometimes that’s the case. Also it can be you purchased this thing and you are required
to up level literally and in that case, it’s a car.

Avram: Sure.

Rachel: So you buy a brand new sports car, you are going to pay a lot for insurance. That is an example of unintended consequences, unintended cost, and you just don’t think about it.

Avram: No, no. We decided to finally record the episode ’cause you were at the gym yesterday or something and Lincoln and I were in the backyard and we were washing down this piece of furniture that got hit pretty bad at the dust storm.

Rachel: Yes.

Avram: And then, you know, we’re playing with the hose and he’s spraying the wall.

And I was like, man, the stucco is like crazy dirty right now. So I take it and I start kind of blasting the wall. And I’m sitting there and like having a really good time doing that, of course so is Lincoln, right? And then I think, man, imagine if the house was even bigger, like how much longer I would have to do this or I have to pay somebody to do it.

Either way. Right? Either way you pay.

Rachel: Right.

Avram: And it’s like, well, if you want the bigger house, those are just some of the things that come with it.

Rachel: Right. And they can be unintended because sometimes you get into that decision and you don’t realize until after that all these other things come along.

Avram: Yeah.

Rachel: Not saying that necessarily, those are the things that you’re going to encounter as far as like, you know, cleaning the outside of the house, stuff like that, but you just don’t know what you’ll find until you’re there.

Avram: Yeah. Super interesting. Um this is gonna sound really nerdy and Rachel doesn’t know I was gonna share this, but I used to play this video game back in the day.

It’s called Warcraft three. And, uh, now listen, listen, listen.

She’s like, oh my God, Avram. No but listen,

Rachel:

Avram: So playing this game, as your army grew, your little minions would bring back less and less resources per trip, and they called it upkeep.

So as your empire grew, it was harder and harder basically to maintain the same income, to maintain the same productivity within your kingdom, if you will.

And I think that was just an interesting, symbolic way of representing how you would run a business or a household. You know, businesses get to a certain point bigger and bigger the administration of the business grows.

Rachel: Sure, yeah.

Avram: The amount of money you have to put towards overhead and towards processes and positions you would’ve never had or needed at smaller level.

Your household grows, you have more children. You, go through different life events. Those things will change the size of your household.

Rachel: And sometimes it’s not, uh, they don’t stay the same amount as they multiply. Sometimes it takes less to take care of more when you spread it out maybe. But then sometimes it might take more. You really don’t know how it’s going to level out. You really don’t. So it’s really very difficult to predict. But I recommend that you try.

Avram: I recommend you try, and I think that the place where we, we looked at this is like, well, so what’s the useful part this conversation?

I think the useful part of the conversation is recognizing, and we talk about it a lot, you know, the core values and what’s important to you and your family, to you and your business, and you make sure that those things are prioritized. And if you have quote, lifestyle creep in those areas, that’s perfectly acceptable. That’s an important

Rachel: Right? Right. And with this choice, of buying the television and buying the Nintendo Switch, all these different things, they were a conscious choice that we made. We didn’t have to buy a bigger tv, but we understood what it did for us. So deciding, is this the thing that we want in our life and support that. I think it also applies in business where you can, like for us, we can have software creep.

Avram: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Rachel: So we can get one piece of software, but need more software to support this. And then it’s like, okay, now how many softwares do we pay for and do we actually really use all of them? So we have had this conversation with financial stuff before, but it can also be in this way that it can be kind of that, that lifestyle creep but uh, keeping up and why.

Avram: And why?

Rachel: So if it is serving your business and serving the bottom line and your clients better, you know, then you’re able to justify, quantify that kind of thing. Uh, but if it’s not something that’s actually really moving the needle, maybe you cut it.

Avram: Yeah. Little places get in trouble. I mean, I spent a good chunk in my twenties wanting to keep up with the Joneses.

Rachel: Yeah.

Avram: You know, and like, well, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Rachel: Right.

Avram: Needle more clearer on your choices, I think, as you get older and find out what matters to you.

Rachel: Yeah. So I love that, that, you know, there’s this one thing that you introduced me to my rich life is that what it’s is that what it’s called?

Avram: Oh, um, by Ramit Sethi.

Rachel: Yeah.

Avram: Yeah. Well, when he talks about his rich life and I think his book is, I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

Rachel: I just thought it was such a really cool perspective, and it is that there are no bad money choices. There are no right and wrong money choices in his way of saying, do what makes you feel like you have your rich life. What is it that you want in your life? If you want no responsibilities and you want to travel well, maybe renting is the better choice. If you love to have a garden and work in the yard, maybe owning is the way to go. You know? There are different ways to look at it, and I just, I loved that perspective.

That it’s not about right or wrong. I mean, you may look at someone else’s life and think, I wouldn’t do it that way, but that’s probably because you lean more towards something else of value. So I I love that perspective.

Avram: Yeah. And I think it also helped when we watched his special on Netflix. That was your first introduction to him?

Rachel: Yeah.

Avram: I had already read the book. I’d actually taught like a six week thinking around the book with a, with a group like ten years ago. Um, so I had already known about his stuff, but I think what it did for us was when you watched it and we were together was like, well, this helps us understand the importance of having a bit of clarity on what is important to us. In that it has to be a somewhat narrow list.

Rachel: Yes. Oh yeah.

Avram: You can’t just spend your money on everything as if it’s all equally important because then what do you have?

Nothing.

Rachel: Exactly. And when you look back at it, you ask, well, what? Like if you looked at your expenses, just a really quick way of maybe assessing if you looked at your expenses, would you see what matters to you? And we’ve talked a little bit about budgets.

Avram: Couple of episodes ago, we’ll put in the show notes.

Just a couple episodes we talked about this.

Rachel: Yeah. You know, if you are able to see what you value with what you’re spending with both time and money, energy, that kind of thing, then awesome you are living your rich life if that matches the values that you have. But we’ve als
o talked about like aspirational values. Are you living your values? When you look and you do this quick audit, is it really what you’d like your values to be? Or are you more living in the, this is what I’m doing and I’d like to get there eventually, you know, and make that plan.

Avram: Yeah. Fun conversation. Always evolving.

You know, us, the Gonzaleses always thinking about it, always looking for ways to thrift it, always looking for a way to, make it match more what we wanna do.

Rachel: Yeah.

Avram: And design our life.

Rachel: Our boys and our family, and our business. You know, we have these goals and we want to support that with the things that we’re doing, the decisions that we’re making.

Avram: Make more conscious choices. So we’ve always got the show notes. If you haven’t checked that out already, go to babiesandbiz.com/82. That’s the episode we’re recording today. You’ll find mentions of previous episodes that relate to this topic. If you found it interesting, there’s a bunch more on the podcast that you’ll probably also enjoy. And if you haven’t already left us a five star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever it is that you’re listening, we’d appreciate you doing that so others can see how impactful this podcast could be to their life as well.

Um, at the bottom of the show notes, just by the way, community question for you this week, come interact with us. We’ve had some folks reaching out, sharing some things, via, you know, text message, smoke signals, email, all kinds of stuff. You can reach us at hello@babiesandbiz.com. But the community question this week is, what’s something that you recently acquired that came with some unexpected cost?

We’d love to hear about it. Ours was the Nintendo Switch. Can’t wait to see what yours is, so you can go to babiesandbiz.com/82. Scroll to the bottom of the page, leave us a note in the comments and we’d love to hear it. With that said, we’ll catch you in the next episode.

Rachel: Bye for now.