Case Study - Alison

When I first spoke with Alison, she was very clear about what made money feel hard: timing. She could work flat‑out, cut costs, do a budget — and still end up short of money because the payments arrived late. The most stressful part was the feeling of not being in control. When that stress spiked, she’d avoid looking too closely at her day‑to‑day business and personal expenses because it felt like one more thing she couldn’t handle.

I didn’t try to ‘motivate’ her into looking at her numbers and doing the hard things, like creating a budget or building savings. We built structure: a time set aside to look at her bank accounts, to understand where her money was invested and how it was performing, at what she was spending her money on. We also spend a significant amount of time understanding where she had inherited some of her money behaviours from. We spoke about her family history, birth order and how that played out in her behaviours, and the responsibilities she felt towards her family and friends. Where that had led to feeling resentful.

What was happening

• Her income timing was unpredictable and often delayed for reasons outside her control.

• Cashflow gaps were sometimes bridged with credit — and the interest felt like a trap.

• When things felt tight, she would avoid checking her bank statements and close her eyes and hand over her credit card. Sometimes she spent impulsively when she felt emotional.

• She was already cutting costs and tracking spending, but sometimes her old mental conditioning meant she spent money and felt intense regret.

What we focused on

• Separating what she can control (decisions and structure) from what she can’t (timing of payments).

• A small weekly money check‑in that was doable in a busy week (instead of rare, intense clean‑ups).

• Reducing the emotional charge: numbers as information, not proof that she’s ‘failing’.

• Understanding what was driving her spending behaviour, and bringing awareness to the causes of this. She kept a spending journal and started to see patterns, which we discussed.

• Building financial boundaries. Learning how to say no in the nicest way so that family and friends would not react negatively when she wanted to maintain her new money practices.

• Practical supports: delegation and automation of personal and business finances so the basics stay up to date.

Practical changes she made

• Delegated monthly bookkeeping so her accounts stayed current, and she no longer feared SARS

• Linked accounts/cards into one place so she could see the whole picture quickly.

• Set up automatic monthly investments so that she could start seeing her money grow. This gave her a better sense of control, and a feeling that she was taking care of her future self.

• Trimmed ‘silent leaks’ (fees/subscriptions) and tightened spending decisions in uncertain months.

What changed (early outcomes)

• Less avoidance; more willingness to look at the numbers regularly, and make the necessary changes and shifts in her spending, saving and investing

• Better financial decisions in lean periods (less freezing, more solution-focused next steps).

• Less shame language; more directness and calm

• A much lower monthly budget once the impulsive spending was under control and the unused subscriptions, fees, and memberships were stripped out.

• A solid savings buffer which helped to tide her over when income payments were running late.