Making more money didn’t make me stop caring about grocery prices—and that’s kind of the point.
We’re a six-figure family, and I still get excited when strawberries are $1.99 at Aldi.
I still compare prices. I still look for coupon codes before I buy something online. I still make coffee at home instead of spending $6 on it every morning. And yes, I still do the majority of our grocery shopping at Aldi.
Not because we have to.
Because being able to afford something and deciding it’s worth spending money on are two completely different things.
And honestly, I think that distinction is one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to build wealth while raising four kids.
Making More Money Doesn’t Automatically Make You Wealthy
There was probably a time when I thought earning more money meant I wouldn’t have to think about grocery prices anymore.
You know the dream.
You walk into the grocery store, throw whatever you want into the cart, swipe your card and don’t even look at the total.
And technically, we could probably do that.
But why?
One of the biggest misconceptions about building wealth is that once you start making good money, you don’t need to worry about the little expenses anymore.
I think the opposite can actually be true.
As your income increases, you have an incredible opportunity to build wealth—but only if your lifestyle doesn’t increase just as quickly.
Because making six figures and keeping six figures are very different things.
Lifestyle Inflation Is Sneaky
Lifestyle inflation doesn’t usually happen overnight.
It happens little by little.
You start making more money, so you upgrade the car.
Then you decide you can afford the bigger house.
You start ordering takeout more often because it’s convenient.
You stop comparing insurance rates.
Amazon packages start arriving almost every day.
The $6 coffee doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
Neither does the $200 Target run.
Or the extra $150 at the grocery store.
Individually, none of those things are going to destroy your finances.
But put them all together month after month, year after year, and suddenly you can have a household earning $200,000 or $300,000 a year wondering:
Where the heck does all our money go?
That’s why I’ve never wanted our lifestyle to automatically expand every time our income does.
Of course we’ve allowed ourselves upgrades. We take vacations. We spend money on our kids. We buy things we enjoy.
I’m not interested in living like we’re broke just so we can watch a number grow in an investment account.
But I also don’t believe that earning more means we should stop caring what things cost.
Aldi Saves Our Family More Than $100 a Week
We’re a family of six.
That means we go through a lot of food.
Four kids can make groceries disappear at a truly impressive rate.
When I compare what I spend at Aldi with what the same general grocery trip costs me at some of the other stores around us, I can easily save $100 or more in a week.
That’s more than $5,000 a year.
And here’s where people sometimes lose me:
“But if you make good money, is saving $100 really that big of a deal?”
YES.
I don’t care how much money we make. I’m not going to intentionally spend an extra $100 for essentially the same groceries just because we can afford to.
I’d rather keep the $100.
Because that $100 has options.
It can go into an investment account.
It can go toward our kids’ futures.
It can help pay for a family vacation.
It can sit in savings.
It can pay for an activity for one of our kids.
Or it can simply stay in our checking account and give us a little more breathing room that month.
I would much rather decide what happens to that money than unnecessarily hand it over at the grocery store.
What If You Invested That $100 Instead?
This is where my brain always goes.
Let’s say you save $100 a week by changing where you grocery shop.
That’s approximately $5,200 a year.
If you invested that money instead and hypothetically averaged an 8% annual return, $5,200 invested every year could grow to roughly:
$75,000 after 10 years.
$238,000 after 20 years.
$589,000 after 30 years.
Obviously, investment returns aren’t guaranteed, and the market doesn’t deliver a perfectly consistent 8% every year.
But that’s not really the point.
The point is that something as boring as where you buy your groceries can potentially have a six-figure impact over your lifetime.
That’s why I don’t buy into the idea that little expenses don’t matter.
They absolutely can.
No, I’m Not Giving Up Everything I Enjoy to Save $5
There’s another extreme in personal finance that I don’t relate to either.
I don’t want to spend my life obsessing over every penny.
If I want Starbucks, I’m getting Starbucks.
If we want to take our kids on vacation, we’re going.
If something makes our life significantly easier and we can afford it, I’m willing to pay for convenience.
The point isn’t to always choose the cheapest option.
The point is to spend intentionally.
I’ll happily spend more money on something that’s important to our family.
What I don’t want to do is spend an extra $5,000 a year on groceries simply because I couldn’t be bothered to shop somewhere less expensive.
There’s a difference.
This Is Why I Still Make Coffee at Home, Too
The same philosophy applies to my coffee.
Making coffee at home costs me somewhere around 50 cents.
Going through a drive-thru can easily cost $4, $5, $6—or more.
Does buying a $6 coffee make someone financially irresponsible?
Of course not.
And I still buy coffee out sometimes.
But I don’t need to spend $6 every morning to prove that we can afford it.
I’d rather make my coffee at home most days and spend money somewhere else.
That’s something I’ve learned as we’ve made more money:
I don’t want everything.
I want the things that actually matter to me.
And being selective about the little things gives us more freedom to say yes to the bigger things.
Looking Wealthy and Being Wealthy Are Two Different Things
This may be my favorite personal-finance lesson of all.
The person who looks wealthy isn’t necessarily wealthy.
The huge house, brand-new SUV, designer bag and expensive vacations tell you how someone spends money.
They don’t tell you how much money that person has.
They don’t tell you what’s in their retirement accounts.
They don’t tell you whether they have credit-card debt.
They don’t tell you whether they’re saving for their kids.
They don’t tell you their net worth.
And they definitely don’t tell you whether they feel financially secure.
I’m much more interested in building wealth than looking wealthy.
That doesn’t photograph quite as well for Instagram.
There’s nothing particularly exciting about an automatic brokerage contribution.
Nobody sees the money sitting in a Roth IRA.
Your neighbors don’t know that you increased your savings rate instead of increasing your car payment.
And nobody is impressed by the fact that you saved $103 at Aldi this week.
But that’s okay.
Because those boring decisions add up.
Our Kids Are Watching, Too
There’s another reason I want to continue doing this even as our finances improve.
Our kids are watching us.
I don’t want them growing up believing that having money means you don’t care what anything costs.
I want them to understand that money represents choices.
You can spend it.
You can save it.
You can invest it.
You can give it away.
You can use it to build something.
But once you spend it, that particular dollar can’t do anything else for you.
I want our kids to eventually understand that wealth isn’t about buying everything you can afford.
It’s about having enough financial security that you have choices.
That’s the kind of wealth I want to build for our family.
Spend More on What Matters. Spend Less on What Doesn’t.
I think this is ultimately what personal finance comes down to for me.
I don’t want the cheapest life possible.
I want a life where our spending actually reflects what we value.
I will gladly spend money creating memories with my kids.
I’ll invest in their futures.
I’ll spend money on things that save me significant time or make our family’s life better.
And I’ll occasionally spend way too much money on something simply because I want it.
But I’m also going to keep shopping at Aldi.
I’m going to keep comparing prices.
I’m going to keep shopping around when an insurance premium jumps.
I’m going to keep making coffee at home most mornings.
And I’m going to keep investing the difference.
Not because we’re struggling.
Because we’re not—and I’d like to keep it that way.
The Concrete Millionaire Mindset
Building wealth isn’t usually one giant decision.
It’s thousands of little decisions repeated over decades.
It’s earning more without immediately spending more.
It’s investing when nobody else can see it.
It’s teaching your kids that having money and spending money aren’t the same thing.
It’s enjoying your life today while still taking care of the person you’re going to be 20 or 30 years from now.
We’re trying to build our family’s financial life the same way you’d build anything meant to last:
Start with a strong foundation.
Our income certainly helps.
But what we do with that income matters a whole lot more.
So yes, we’re a six-figure family.
And I’ll see you in the Aldi checkout line.
— The Concrete Millionaire Mom Next Door