Your New Year’s Resolutions Cost

It’s the beginning of the year and every new year’s eve, we make new year’s resolutions passionately and promise ourselves that we will make it happen in that new year. It is common knowledge that most of the new year’s resolutions don’t make past February. It is possible to make realistic resolutions like buying a strata-titled landed house by this year or at least read more than five books in the year. Before getting down to see some of the popular and overused resolutions to see how much they would cost.

1. Work out more

We will always constantly hear people whining or complaining about their dissatisfaction on how their body looks or improving their lifestyle to be healthier. The usual and convenient solution is to sign up the gym and get the membership. The average gym subscription in Klang Valley is RM200. Yet, it doesn’t just stop there, you will need to invest in sports gear like sport shoes, appropriate clothing and others that is relevant to your sports’ interest.

Once you have subscribed to the gym, it will be automatically bill to your credit card or deduct from your debit card each month. As you know, you will still be charged whether you have used the gym facilities. Some gyms offer memberships without a monthly commitment, perhaps you can take advantage of that. However, the disadvantage is that this monthly pass can be more expensive than going for the 12-month contract and it is something to consider.

If your home or work has gym facilities, fully utilise it since you have already paid for it. You can go to local forums on the internet to find a group you can find partners to work out together. You can start slow by taking the stairs instead of elevator and escalator.

2. Travel more

Travelling is another great way to widen your horizons and challenge yourself. You will feel enriched when exploring new places where you can't speak the local languages while ordering food, haggling with vendors, getting directions and more. However, with our currency position, travelling is quite expensive even when travelling locally. For example, heading up to Penang and Melaka can easily take up RM300 to RM500 for travelling expenses (car or plane), accommodation, food and miscellaneous.

Plan for your travel if you have decided to go for a vacation. Plan in advance like in months or weeks before instead of last minute bookings. This allows you to save lots of money, more than you can imagine. Observe the annual travel fair like Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents that organises the MATTA fair which offers ridiculously low prices on tours and travels.

You can also observe the flight fares to your dream destinations by monitoring airline prices in real time. Besides, there are some websites that give you alerts if the fares of your chosen destination drop below a certain price. However, on the other hand, you will need to be flexible about your travelling dates but there is a small price to pay.

3. New hobby

Lifelong learning enriches our life more through endless learning and curiosities. So, to enrich our lives, we start off from taking a new hobby that can help to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zone that gives fulfilling experiences. For example, salsa dancing that you may want to learn, on average, costs about RM120 to RM150 a month, while salsa shoes cost another RM120. There is also swordfighting that on average costs RM840 a year, excluding the training sword, fencing mask and heavy gloves that can sum up to RM2,000.

There are also board games if you prefer to have your mind stimulate your intellectual. Well, you don't have to buy them as they can cost up to few hundred ringgit per game and you will probably only play them once or twice when you have all your members gathered. Just head over to board games cafe to play as they charge by hourly rate or per game.

Reading books can also help to stimulate mind and broaden knowledge. Although books can be quite expensive in Malaysia, you can get books at cheaper prices from second hands bookstores and sell them off / give away to those who need it after that. This definitely helps to save up a lot.  

Hopefully the costs of your new year’s resolutions do not make you feel obliged to pay extra or expensive for it. You can always look for alternate cheaper solutions for your New Year’s resolutions. 

If there is a will, there is a way to achieve your new year’s resolution.