Alison Butters doesn’t just deliver Money Management courses—she equips our staff with an understanding of how trauma influences young people’s spending habits, and practical ways to respond.
The young people in our services often struggle to manage their finances, but this isn’t always about their lack of skills or experience in managing a budget. It’s often much more deep-rooted than that.
Many of the 16–25-year-olds we support live with invisible “rucksacks” filled with heavy boulders – childhood instability, abuse, fractured relationships, poverty. Those boulders control them and shape the way they spend and save. I should know because I was once one of them.
I was 17 when I was kicked out of my home, struggling with my mental health, struggling with homelessness. I’ve carried those boulders and got into debts I couldn’t pay back – and it wasn’t just about budgeting.
It’s easy to judge people and question their choices. I sometimes hear people say things like why order a takeaway if you can’t pay rent? But for someone who has little power in life, that pizza may be their only act of choice. It can be self-soothing, a comforting balm, a way to feel human for a moment. And sometimes that need can be stronger than the need to manage their budget.
Many of the young people we see are struggling with trauma and this directly affects their relationship with money. Our approach doesn’t shame their decisions. Instead, it shines a light on them and asks what it represents.
In practice, that means helping people safely unpack their ‘rucksack’. Sometimes a boulder becomes a pebble when you break it down. Sometimes the “monster under the bed” turns out to be a teddy bear when we shine a light at it. When people feel safe, seen, and supported, they begin to make different choices.
We absolutely don’t start with budgets. Budgets matter of course, but if we launch in with spreadsheets and deficits, we risk people shutting down. Instead, we start with tools that connect with emotions and lived experiences.
These can be exercises like:
This approach shifts the conversation, removing shame and placing motivation at the centre. For me, money and emotion are deeply intertwined. Debt can feel like punishment. Scarcity can make people hoard and fear loss. Overspending can be a way to cope with anxiety. Society fuels this too. We live in what I call “pot noodle society” – everything fast, easy, instant. Add in the lure of “buy now, pay later” and the result is spending patterns driven more by dopamine than by long-term goals.
Our role isn’t to tell people what not to do. We’re not the ‘fun police’. It’s about helping people pause, reflect, and make choices that are not fuelled by chasing that dopamine-high but instead bring them closer to what they truly want in life, whether that’s a holiday, stability, or independence.
Sustaining your own accommodation requires both financial literacy and emotional stability. Housing, money, and wellbeing form a trio: without one, the others are at risk. It’s so important the young people we work with understand their own relationship with money, so they can begin to make the changes they need to move forward.
At its heart, our money management programme is about preventing homelessness. It equips them with what I call a ‘passport’ – the skills and awareness to manage independently and weather life’s shocks. It builds stronger communities with individuals who feel capable and confident.