Making a Fresh Start in YNAB

BenB (FINALLY) makes a Fresh Start in his YNAB budget!

Timestamps:
0:00 What is a Fresh Start?
6:34 Fresh Start mechanics
16:37 The actual budget changes
34:25 The account changes
38:08 Fresh Start takeaways
39:24 YNAB Wins

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[lindsaysimplified]

We just made a fresh start for 2022 because we paid off all our debt in 2021, moved, and had a bunch of categories that weren’t relevant anymore. So excited for 2022!

[joanhall]

I’ve never wanted to use fresh start because I love tracking spending changes through time, ( it helps me to see how my spending has evolved ).
This year I’m planning to move all my available money back into “to be assigned “ then reallocate it. It’s my attempt to have a fresh start without losing my past date for comparisons.

[katzimmerman]

Thank you so much for reading my comment from early 2021! I was able to fully get a month ahead soon after this video and it has made all the difference! Looking forward to beefing up more of my true expenses this year!

[NettieFIRE]

🤔 So … Ben walks into an appliance store.

“Hi, my name is Ben and I need a new fridge”.
“Welcome to our store Ben, you’ve come to the right place so, what’s your budget?”.
“$20”.
“Well Ben, before we look at ‘cooling’ options, I think we need to have discussion first about, what I like to call, ‘true expenses’. Let’s begin! Here at my feet is a white styrofoam box - that’s option 1 …..”
😂

[owlexb]

This was great! I love to listen to / watch these while I'm budgeting so I have inspo + virtual budgeting "buddies." Happy New Year!

[rebekahyoungers]

Ernie, thank you for chiming in with your family’s grocery spending! We are a family of 5 with 3 boys aged 18, 16, and 12 and their appetites never cease to amaze me! We aim for $900/ month and that requires meal planning and lots of intentionality. Love YNAB because there’s never any judgment or push for one “right way” to spend money. Thanks for another awesome episode!

[HarlandDWhite]

Really enjoyed you guys walking through this. Ben, I'm definitely inspired by the increased giving goals; I'm looking to do the same!!

[tfrizz]

I was inspired by hearing about Ben’s compassion category so I decided to add a Random Acts of Kindness category to my budget. 🙂

[michaelhutchinson]

YNAB Win: Estimated our joint income, created all our categories and set goals for them all. Was a little surprised at how tight it ended up but still made it work with decent money going to savings as well. And then I realised in my joint income estimation I had only accounted for half of my partners monthly income. Good feeling 😁

[christinesmith]

Yay, Amazement Square! We had a membership when we lived in town. Thanks, Ben and Ernie, for all you do!!

[conureron]

I did a fresh start last year, after a full year of using YNAB - it did clear up a lot of my rookie mistakes using the app, etc. this year, though, my budget is humming along in good fashion. Want at least 2 years of data, watching my net worth graph grow!

[skent]

I would LOVE to see an episode completely on Groceries! I have NO idea how you can possibly feed a family on so little. We are a household of 6 - 4 kids 18/17/15/12 - and I've struggled to get this monthly budget below $2K. And this was before the recent crazy price increases!!

[kendrawright]

Even though I am not doing a fresh start this year, this was such a fun episode to watch. I legit chuckled out loud when Ben still does not want to fun his appliance category. 😂 I also thought the way Ben and his wife set their new budget goals with independent spreadsheets was a great idea!

[ladysun]

I just started a new 2022 budget after tinkering with different ones all of 2020. This is hopefully the one

[laramylly]

Been a YNAB nerd for a few years. Fresh start was scary...and I tried it for Jan1 2022 and glad I did. Good to revisit categories and payees. Felt like a clean start and glad I did it.

[SGast]

I am doing my fresh starts the same way as Ben I don't want any weird months.
I do grocery shopping and I love being nerdy with it It really gives you a sense of accomplishment having a good meal plan and successful grocery shop. I could imagine that his wife feels the same and she likes being frugal with groceries.

[brandankeel]

Just finished my first Fresh Start. Deleted a bunch of payees and categories plus tweaked my targets. Thanks for all that you do. Cheers!

[itsGabrielaCristina]

I am itching to do a Fresh Start, but I’m going to hold off a bit. My budget is called Road to Homeownership. I’m hoping to reach that goal early next year and dona Fresh Start the month my first mortgage payment will be due. After that, I plan to make it a yearly thing!

[meskobe]

FYI, with most mortgages, you can take over your own escrow once you have 20% equity. So you could've been doing that long ago!

As a nerdy YNABer, I swiped that task back from the bank asap! As you said, they're constantly changing the amount, which is really annoying! It also helps you be more attentive and aware of changes to homeowners insurance and property taxes. When you call up your insurance agent about increases, you'll hear them stutter to explain, because they're used to people just blindly allowing the bank to pay the bill, no questions asked. Just like car insurance, gotta shop it around every couple years!

[apropo]

I am embarrassed to say that I have tried to budget with Ynab for many years, but I have now decided to do it faithfully. I never make things simple but aim to be perfect.
Now I need advice on how to begin that I will stay with it, except my mortgage and car and a couple of thousand credit card debt. I need to have a business budget and a personal one.

Again I am so flustered I don't want to start. Can you kindly guide me?