A 24-year-old woman from London is on a mission to retire by 40 and has shared how she keeps her daily spending to a minimum in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Mia McGrath, a TikTok creator who shares tips on saving, investing, and budgeting, has gained 103,000 followers. She follows the F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, which has been gaining popularity among Gen Z.
In a video that might make many Londoners rethink their spending habits, Mia McGrath showed just how dedicated she is to her goal by revealing she spends only £13 a day.
She skips pricey coffees, takes advantage of TikTok Shop freebies, and always brings her own lunch to work. While others spend around £10 on a quick meal from places like Pret, Mia prefers to save by packing her own breakfast and lunch – using leftovers for lunch and having eggs in the morning.
Her approach has already caught the attention of over 112,000 viewers.
Mia shared that rather than avoiding expensive health trends like electrolytes, she finds a budget-friendly way to enjoy them by collecting free samples from TikTok Shop.
The TikToker explained that her commute from Zone 2 to Zone 1 costs £3.40, and she makes the most of the free coffee available at her fashion sales job.
For breakfast, she keeps it budget-friendly with 50p eggs, microwaved in the office kitchen, along with leftover pancakes from Pancake Day – bringing her total morning meal cost to just 50p.
At lunchtime, Mia said she took a walk with her colleagues but skipped buying a sandwich and ate her leftovers, which cost just 80p.
Her commute home cost another £3.40, and she spent £4.84 at Sainsbury’s. For dinner, she made spaghetti bolognese for £1 per serving and air-fryer brownies for dessert at just 40p per piece.
By the end of the day, including all meals and transport, she spent only £13.34. That is less than the price of a salad at some London cafés.
Her budgeting skills left many viewers surprised, inspired, and even a little frustrated.
“Even my Slavic grandma who saves every cent eats better,” one wrote.
“The reason you have to save so much is YOU LIVE IN ZONE 2,” a second commented.
In an earlier video, Mia proved her commitment to retiring at 40 by sharing her daily habits. She sticks to a 50p breakfast of an egg and half a bagel, skips buying coffee when she’s out, and never spends money on getting her nails done.
Mia shared her strategy for early retirement in the viral clip with nearly 246,000 views. She said she sticks to a 50p breakfast, skips daily coffees, and avoids getting her nails done to save money in her 20s.
For her, the sacrifice is worth it because by 45, she will not need to ask for time off and can simply take it.
Mia also saves on rent by living at home and shopping for second-hand clothes. She takes on side hustles like content creation and modeling to boost her income.
Mia has calculated that she needs £1.25 million to retire at 40 and live on £35,000 a year. She understands that saving alone will not be enough to reach this goal.
To grow her wealth, she invests in the stock market. Out of her £75,000 savings, £58,000 is invested in stocks. She shared that most of her investments are in the S&P 500, an index that tracks 500 major US companies, which typically offers an average return of eight percent per year.
Mia is currently investing about £1,500 each month but knows she needs to raise that to at least £2,000 to reach her goal of paying herself £35,000 a year from age 40.
To make this happen, she plans to boost her income by increasing her salary and earning more from her side hustles.
Source: Daily Mail
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