The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 December 2025) examined the financial implications of popular resolutions made at the start of each year, using the prices of some of the items we collect as part of the Consumer Price Index basket of goods and services and other CSO data.
If you stick to them, New Year’s resolutions can lead to significant costs savings, particularly in the area of health and fitness.
November 2025 is the most up to date CPI data available, as December 2025 information will be published on 15 January 2026.
The change in prices for each product is calculated from their price indices. The price index tracks a wide range of prices for a variety of items within a product group every month. All of these items are part of the CPI, which measures inflation over time.
*Rail journeys data from National Transport contains estimated data since 30 April 2025 and is subject to revision.
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Resolutions
Smoking and Drinking
Our annual resolve to get fit and healthy tends to involve looking at what things we can give up. Looking at the potential savings of giving up smoking and drinking, we can see that someone who smokes a packet of cigarettes a day will save themselves €575.36 if they give up for the month of January. If they can kick the habit for the full year there could be potential savings of at least €6,700.
For those opting to take a break from alcohol for the month of January, there are savings of approximately €95 for people who drink on average four pints of lager or stout a week in the pub.
Dining Habits
A change in dining habits could lead to savings particularly as the cost of a meal in a restaurant went up almost 25% in the five years between November 2020 and November 2025. This was similar for takeaways as they increased by 30%, meaning a takeaway that would have cost €25 five years ago, is costing you more than €32 now.
Coffee lovers can also make significant savings as the cost of a single daily takeaway coffee has risen by 7% in the 12 months to November 2025.
Savings and Holidays
After coming through the busy, and costly, Christmas period, households understandably often shift their financial focus to better budgeting, tracking spending, and reducing expenditure, in a bid to increase savings. Households saved almost 14% of their income in January, February, and March 2025 or approximately €1 out of every €7 of their disposable income.
And with the dark January nights ahead, many households start to dream of the sun and plan their summer holidays. In 2025, the price of package holidays increased by 1.5%, and despite the costs, Irish residents took more than 4.6 million outbound overnight trips in July, August, and September 2025.
Eco-friendly Resolutions
Eco-friendly resolutions, such as reducing energy consumption or commuting less by car, can also lead to a financial benefit. Public transport use is rising with the number of bus and rail journeys (excluding LUAS) at approximately 229 million* from January to the beginning of November 2025.
People have also been switching to greener options in their home where they can. The number of homes with renewable energy sources is increasing and as of July, August, and September 2025, 25% of the 1.3 million homes with Building Energy Ratings (BER) had at least one source of renewable energy present such as heat pumps, solar thermal systems, and solar photovoltaic panels. Our homes are also becoming more energy efficient. As of September 2025, of the 1.3 million unique dwellings to receive a BER since 2009, 17% received an A rating in their most recent assessment.
The number of new electric cars licensed in the 11 months to November 2025 also rose by 38% when compared with the same period in 2024, while there were 18,137 new plug-in hybrid electric cars registered, up 65%.