Family Lifestyle Creep & Savings Goals
First time poster, long time creeper, sometime commenter.
I can't shake the feeling that my family's lifestyle creep has gotten out of control and I don't know how to rein it in. But in actuality we are saving ~20% a year, and are still living within our means.
The data:
Married in our early 40s, two incredible children in grade school
HHI: ~$550 - $600k depending on RSUs
401ks: ~$1.07MM
Other savings: ~$530k
Mortage: None, we rent babyyyyyy
529s: Fully funded
VVVHCOL in SoCal
No debt. Cars are paid off (certified pre-owned).
We are spending around $250k a year. Sometimes more. I comb over our credit card statements and there are certainly places we can cut. We get take out food once a week, go out to eat as a family twice a month (it's so expensive! have you been? why is everything so expensive!). We never doordash/ubereats. We have cut down on our drinking (which I think has saved us about $8k a year). We travel, but that's why we make money right? To take our kids on adventures? And then there is the Amazon/Target junk hauls, which again, obviously we could cut back on but we like our humming bird feeder and when it broke we just ordered a new one because we like it and the humming birds will be so sad without it. But all those little $8 - $12 dollar one off purchases add up.
Like financially I think we are fine, maybe even good? But I cannot stop feeling like we are going to send ourselves to the poorhouse with our spending, despite there not really being any evidence to support it.
Does anyone else feel like this? That life style creep has gotten the better of you, but maybe it's okay? I feel like it's haunting me. Maybe it's just the tenuous state of the world, and this is what 40 feels like?