For 2008 I'm making a resolution to stop spending my money on things I don't need. I'm addicted to shopping - I'm a complete shopaholic. I'm always buying new make-up and shoes - they're my real weaknesses.

Then when I come home from town I think 'Why did I buy those?'

So next year I'm going to try to stop spending my money on things I already have enough of.

In 2007, my resolution was to cut down on the amount of chocolate I was eating which didn't work as I still have to have a bar every single night before I go to bed.

One of my prizes for winning Miss NI was gym membership at The Culloden Hotel, so hopefully I'll get a few more sessions before my term is up.

That could be another resolution - to eat more healthily and to get fit! I was crowned Miss NI on June 25 and it was definitely the highlight of 2007 for me. It has opened so many doors for me and I've just returned from spending five weeks in China as part of the Miss World beauty pageant. It was so incredible to be part of the biggest beauty pageant in the world and to experience the culture of China. I met so many people - there were 120 girls taking part in the competition. But, I've met so many new people along the way since June - not just at Miss World - and it's been the most amazing experience ever. I don't want it to end.

I'm not sure what I will do when my time as Miss NI is up.

I hope to continue on in the modelling industry ... I really couldn't go back to a 9 to 5 job! I worked as an air hostess for two years beforehand and since I started modelling, it's really made me start thinking about my career. I'd like to get into the media - maybe TV presenting. I haven't done anything about it just yet.

So far my modelling work has been within Northern Ireland, apart from Miss World, but I would be prepared to travel to wherever my career takes me.

Author and playwright Lucy Caldwell (26) spent most of 2007 out of the country so she hopes to spend January catching up with friends and family and finishing her second novel. She lives between Belfast and London. Lucy says:

I always feel that the year actually starts in the autumn because I associate it with the school term beginning again and going back to the books.

The thing about being a writer is that I tend to measure my time on the projects I'm working on at that time, and how long it takes me to complete them, as you just never know.

I've been hectically busy for the past 18 months since my first novel, Where They Were Missed, was published.

The response has been amazing and I recently received a six page letter with spidery handwriting from a man who had read it. It really was lovely.

I'm now writing full time and make my living from it. I earn very little and I'm very much aware that I still have my student debts hovering over my head! My resolution for 2008 is probably the same as a lot of people - to be more productive.

Now that my first book is out there it has very much taken on a life of its own and it's opened so many doors for me. I'm fortunate that I can work with lots of talented people because of it and I'm now in talks with Paula McFetridge about doing something in the future with Kabosh Theatre Company.

I'm based between Belfast and London and I was away for half of last year. I also spent a good bit of time over in Galway when my play Leaves was running in the theatre there.

I went to Africa with Concern as an ambassador to write case studies on their community work and to talk about it on the radio. While over in the States, I was playwright-in-residence at a theatre in Connecticut.

I hope my craft will improve in 2008 and I've made a conscious decision to keep January clear so that I can concentrate on my second book.

I've the first draft written and I need to get back to the drawing board with that.

It's about a girl who goes missing and her family fears that she has died. It doesn't have a title yet. I'm very superstitious about that - it tends to be the thing I decide on last. It's saved on my computer under a whole lot of titles.

It's hard to know, when your work is creative, whether or not it's good enough, and I do worry if the ideas will always be there.

2007 saw Cool FM DJ Pete Snodden (27) marry his long-term girlfriend Julia. 2008 gets off to a jet-setting start for him as he heads off on holiday. Pete and Julia live in Bangor. He says:

The year has been a really great one for me. In terms of my breakfast radio show I hope to build on the success I've had so far and try to reach out to as many new listeners as possible.

I've done a few entertainment slots with UTV Life talking about the latest concerts and movies and I really enjoyed the experience of live TV. I wouldn't rule out any future TV presenting work, but I'm firmly committed to my radio show. I'll always choose radio over TV.

I cut back on my club DJing in 2007 as I was starting to not enjoy it as much anymore. I get up every morning at 4.30am to go to the Cool FM studio so DJing at night during the week doesn't really lend itself to that sort of thing. I think that if you're not really enjoying it then the crowd will pick up on it.

I love live music and I definitely want to see more live music next year. I'm a bit of a socialite and I love being out and about meeting people and catching up with friends, so in 2008 I'd love to organise my time a bit better and meet my friends a bit more ... and get to the gym more often. They're probably the same resolutions I had this time last year!

This year I started off well and I went to the gym for about eight weeks running, then I missed a week and it rolled into another one. As soon as you get out of your routine it's hard to get back into it.

Part of my problem is that I don't have a set time or routine for going to bed at night. Last night I wasn't in bed until 1.30am ... I just seem to lose track of time.

I got married in June to Julia and it was the best day ever. We went off on honeymoon for three weeks to the west coast of America. We'll be together eight years in January and on New Year's Day we fly off to Florida and New York for 12 days. I'm really looking forward to it and maybe we'll get a few other short breaks booked for later in the year.

I might tackle a bit of DIY as well. Getting the back garden sorted in time for summer would be good, maybe a bit of decking or a nice patio area. It's usually a total no-go area, especially by the time I buy the stuff, make a mess, pay an expert to do the job and then fix where I went wrong, but next year I might as well give it a go!

UTV's Paul Clark isn't one for making New Year's resolutions believing that each new day is full of new challenges - not just January 1. He says:

New Year's Day doesn't mean that much to me, to be honest. I probably gave up making resolutions a long time ago because I always broke them. You shouldn't have to wait until the beginning of a new year to lose a few pounds or join the gym, you can set yourself a goal at any time of the year and achieve it.

I've quite an optimistic view of life and I look at each new day as full of opportunities and challenges. It might be partly to do with the line of work I'm in. I never know what is going to happen each day and when you're dealing with the highs and lows of other people's lives then I think it makes you appreciate each new day and the fresh challenges that it brings.

In a sense tomorrow is the same as every other day, it's no different to December 31.

Sometimes we can place too much importance on one day of the year and when you do that it tends not to live up to what one hopes it will.

Who knows what 2008 might bring? I've been fortunate to travel to many countries, particularly areas that people would never dream of going to, like southern Sudan. That trip was through my charity work with CMS (Church Missionary Society) and I went to take a look at their educational projects.

In my experience of going to these places, I feel that the children are really very willing to learn. They see as it as a way up or a way out of their situation. I'm very passionate about education - I feel it's something we very much take for granted.

Also, I went to Banda Aceh in Indonesia shortly after the 2004 tsunami as a Northern Ireland ambassador for UNICEF. Life really is precious and we really don't know we're living sometimes.

I'm sure my wife Carol would like me to be a better husband. Perhaps I could be a bit more domesticated, there's always room for improvement when it comes to that area.

When it comes to bad habits, I spend too much time in work but I really do love my work. I hope it's not at the expense of my relationship. Well, I can't be that bad as we've been together for 20 years!"

Downtown Radio's Candy Devine intends to travel more in 2008. She lives in Belfast with her husband Donald McLeod. She says:

I make a New Year's resolution every year to go on a diet and lose weight. Every year I break it. It's the only inconsistency in my life. Sometimes it can last for hours, days or months and then I get complacent which is swiftly followed by guilt kicking in.

I think life is a bit of a waste if you don't set yourself goals because it's important to have something to aim for. My goals for the next year are to spend more quality time with my husband and family, to take time out to read all the books that I didn't get to read in 2007 and to spend quality time with my friends. We've lost so many friends this year to illness and I lost my mother Ivy, also. She was affectionately known as Nooks and she lived in Australia. She would have been 101 in November past had she lived. She was a great lover of music and had so many stories to tell.

I might take up learning French this year. I thought about learning it before and made overtures about it, but they fell to the wayside. My daughter-in-law and one of my sons speak it fluently so if I learnt it we could have secret conversations!

I love to travel and I'd like to see Alaska in 2008 which is a bit of a contradiction because I don't like the cold. It really appeals to me. We also hope to visit Australia to see my family there and we usually do a stop over in the Far East or somewhere along the way. I firmly believe that there's a big bad world out there to be explored. There is so much to see and do!

One of my favourite places is the Pacific Islands. Years ago I worked there as a singer for three months and I just loved their attitude and way of life. When they ran out of food they would eat at a cousin's house and when they all ran out of food they went fishing. There was no sense of panic and everyone shared what they had. There was none of this accumulating of money that there is today. I think there is far too much emphasis placed on money and I'd like to see less of that.