Lifestyle Creep Detector

Overview

Compares your spending categories over a 6-12 month period to identify gradual, often unnoticed increases in spending — the classic "lifestyle creep" that erodes savings as income grows. Highlights which categories have drifted upward and by how much.

Wilson Tools Used

• spending_summary — pull category-level spending for multiple months to compare periods

Workflow

1. Run spending_summary for the most recent 3 months to get current average spending by category.
2. Run spending_summary for the 3-month period from 6 months ago (e.g., if now is April 2026, pull October-December 2025) to get the baseline.
3. For each category, calculate:
   • Dollar change: current average - baseline average
   • Percentage change: (current - baseline) / baseline * 100
4. Flag any category where spending increased by more than 15% AND more than $50/month. These are lifestyle creep candidates.
5. Sort flagged categories by dollar increase descending.
6. Present results: