'I've saved £60,000 and I'm only 23 – this is what I do differently to other young people'

A woman has shared the list of rules she has set herself in a bid to .

Mia McGrath, 23, has managed to save an incredible £60,000, but had had to be ‘strict’ with herself to do so, avoiding ‘unnecessary spending’. During her time at university, Mia began to focus on her , and decided that she wanted to be able to buy her own home.

She realised that with a salary of £30,000 she would need to put down a deposit of £120,000 in order to be able to get a foot on the ladder and purchase a £300,000 London home. The , who recently went viral sharing her hacks to ‘live below her means’, has now saved £63,000.

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She told : “As a woman on social media, it’s so tempting to over-consume. We have so many temptations now like overpriced skincare, makeup, and clothes. Buy now pay later services are the credit cards of my generation and they're making it easier for people to live beyond their means.

“[In order to ], I cut back and started to live below my means. This meant bringing my lunch to work every day, making coffee at work instead of buying it out, shopping sparingly and avoiding takeaways and Ubers.” Another thing that Mia says has been a key factor in helping her to save is being able to live at home, a privilege that she understands not everyone has.

When it comes to what she spends on, the TikToker says that there are five things she never spends money on. Mia refuses to buy multiples of accessories like jewellery and sunglasses and insists that you need just one of each. She also refuses to buy bottled water and always carries her own refillable bottle with her.

Another area where Mia won’t splurge on is beauty and ‘overpriced’ skincare, instead picking up her essentials from places like . She’s also mindful not to waste money on home buys, avoiding spending on ‘little décor pieces or trinkets’ as they’re ‘such a waste of money’. In addition, Mia also avoids expensive juices, smoothies and health shots.

She said: “I feel you could definitely make them at home. I feel like they are such a waste of money. You could just literally eat the fruit and get the same health benefits. I know it might be extreme, but it’s because I have very clear long-term goals, like buying my own home.

“A lot of people do say that buying a £5 coffee is not going to make a difference, but it’s these little changes that you make over time that are going to add up. Not getting my nails done and little things like that, I’ve noticed I do have a lot more money to invest and save. The things that you do in life that take extra time and extra effort are going to be the ones that are rewarding. It’s the convenient options that are always going to cost you more.”

While living at home helps with her savings, Mia says that the cut backs she makes are helping to lead to her reaching her goal of ‘financial freedom’. She said: “I try very hard to put at least 50-70% of my income aside due to my living situation. This is also because after learning about investing and compound interest, I knew that if I put it aside when I was young it would compound and grow over time, basically setting me up for life.”

Mia, who has been interested in personal finance since her teenage years, was mindful while at university to spend her maintenance loan ‘carefully’, choosing to buy clothes second hand from charity shops, would walk instead of taking public transport, cooked her meals at home, and drank alcohol ‘sparingly’. The TikToker used YouTube to teach herself about investing and now shares TikToks about how she leads a more budget-friendly life.