Setting New Years resolutions to save money
The Christmas decorations are down. You’ve hopefully recovered from your hangover, and are starting to think about how best to lose those unwanted but well-deserved extra kilos from the apple sauce on Christmas. Working has reared its ugly head. You’re back on the bandwagon in a big way.
So, one week on from New Years, have you kept your resolutions? No Maccas? No smoking? Limiting yourself to ten alcoholic beverages every week? Stuck to your diet?
Chances are, seven days in, your initial resolutions are teetering. My resolve to detox certainly is. Most people break their resolution by the end of February. Only 30% of people ever actually achieve their resolutions.
So how can you set yourself a New Year’s Resolution you might actually meet? And if your goal for this year is to achieve a financial goal, what’s the best way of getting there?
Reality Bites
Set yourself one goal and an achievable one at that. Living off a budget of $30 a week and saving the rest probably isn’t sustainable in the long run, but setting up a budget to repay all your debts might be. Don’t create a goal you can only fail, because you’ll be more dispirited come 2011. If you set smaller, achievable goals, you’re more likely to get a lot done.
Shake it up a bit
Who said you needed to make New Year’s Resolutions at New Year’s? Who said every resolution can only be about denial and no reward? People tend to hysterical about New Year’s Resolutions, but if you want to be serious about achieving a goal, then build it into your lifestyle. Set up a scheme that involves small rewards for big sacrifices.
Understand that sometimes you slip up- create a May Day resolution, or a mid-February pact should that happen.
Get conversational
People are often divided on whether talking about resolutions is positive or negative. Understand your own personality. If you’re extroverted, you’re likely to feed off other people’s encouragement or disapproval, so having a support group who know what you’re trying to achieve might be a great thing. If that thought makes your fingernails curl, maybe talk to the cyberspace (see below).
Get it out there
Here is a list of six free applications online that help you track your new years (or any time) resolutions.
Motivate yourself
Before you resolve to do something, write a list of what you want to achieve. Then work out how you can do it. Is there some expenditure you can save on?? Try and keep your resolutions positive and about what you can achieve as opposed to what you’ll have to sacrifice to obtain it.
Traditionally, every day has been a new year with a new resolution for me. Until now. This time I’m getting motivated.
The goals are small, there’s a plan of attack and none of it involves me losing 20 kilograms before next bikini season.
2010 might just be my year!
What are your new year resolutions, and how do you keep them?
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