How do I keep my standards when cutting corners would save money?

You face the quiet test of your trade daily: a corner you could cut, cheaper for you, invisible to everyone, buried behind a wall where no inspector or owner will ever look. The temptation is real precisely because you would not get caught. That is exactly why it matters. But think past the moment. People are going to live and sleep and raise children inside what you build. The corner you hide does not stay hidden; it waits, in the wiring, the framing, the foundation, until one day it fails for someone who trusted the work was done right. You would not be there to see it. It would still be yours. So make the honest choice the default, not the exception. Do the buried work as if it were on display, because to your own conscience it always is. When you are tempted, picture the family who will live there and ask if you would want them under a corner you cut. That question keeps you the builder they deserve.