I ditched London to live by the beach in India and I don’t regret it – I have homemade meals delivered to me for just £2 (but there is one big downside)
A former waitress has revealed why she ditched the UK for India, after admitting she struggled with living in ‘demanding’ London.
Lily Baria, who is half English and half Indian, decided to take a chance and move to Goa aged 20, despite having no job lined up.
Before upping sticks, she was working in London at a family friend’s cafe and had taken managerial responsibilities, which she found challenging. This ultimately led to deciding to quit the rat race for a more peaceful life in a cheaper country.
The average cost of living in the Big Smoke is around £2,550 a month for a single person, according to UHomes. However, it is significantly less in Goa, with Digit Insurance estimating that monthly costs add up to around £170.
‘It was really demanding and I started to go a bit crazy to be honest. I needed to get out of London asap,’ she previously told ForFaceSake London.
‘All of a sudden I had this urge to go to India. I had never been and I’m Indian so honestly, I just thought why not.’
The content creator, 28, has now lived in the South Asian country for eight years and often films the picturesque views from her home, which is close to both the jungle and the beach.
She resides in Goa – famous for its beautiful beaches – with her boyfriend and her pet dog and makes money from selling clothes she knits herself on her balcony.
Lily Baria, who is half English and half Indian, decided to take a chance and move to Goa aged 20, despite having no job lined up
She also enjoys showing her followers what her daily life is like, which includes spending around just £2 a day to get freshly cooked food delivered to her door by a cook.
Lily decided to start ordering lunch seven days a week with one of India’s many tiffin services, where home cooks will prepare meals and deliver them to your door every day, usually at the same time, for a monthly cost.
She pays just £50 a month to receive the meal, which usually consists of meaty curries, rice, greens and side dishes, seven days a week, which means she never has to worry about cooking lunch.
Tiffin boxes are available to buy in the UK, but at a more expensive cost, with some companies charging a whopping £30 for just two portions.
Lily, who has been dubbed ‘the tiffin lady’ on TikTok for showing her daily meals, said: ‘Before we got the tiffin service, I was making ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch every day.
‘So no, getting different Goan food delivered every day, I don’t get bored. It’s different every day, ham and cheese sandwiches are the same.’
Lily has travelled to three Indian states so far and initially moved there on her own, admitting she was a ‘little nervous’ at first.
The designer lives by a ‘life is short’ mentality and told the website: ‘I might not be here tomorrow so I try and live for right now. I know that might bite me in the ass later on in life but at least I’ll have met some amazing people and seen a bit more of the world than I would have sitting behind a desk all day.’
The content creator, 28, has now lived in the South Asian country for eight years and often films the picturesque views from her home
However, Lily has faced criticism in the past, with viewers claiming she only shows the ‘rich part’ of Goa , which she denies.
Her videos often show the array of scenic restaurants, sandy beaches and delicious food and drink on offer, along with the breathtaking view of tropical plants from her bedroom window.
‘God forbid a girl live in India and enjoy it,’ she wrote.
However, Lily also admitted that there are downsides to living in Goa, rather than a more built up city such as Mumbai or New Delhi.
She said, as per The Sun: ‘Living in Goa is still very much village living so infrastructure etc may not be what you’re used to.
‘You are guaranteed to be without electricity multiple times a day unless you have a generator/inverter and sometimes you can be without water so make sure that’s something you can live with.’
