History Main / MoneyDumb

SuperTrope to GamblingRuinsLives.

* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Haley knows to pad the adventuring party's budget to account for TheDitz Elan's poor financial sense, which includes a completely backwards understanding of how haggling works.

** Krusty the Clown is routinely shown to be careless with his expenses, relying on a ridiculous amount of cheap merchandising to keep him afloat. This becomes a plot device in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]", where wasteful spending and incompetent gambling (as in, betting ''against'' the Harlem Globetrotters, an exhibition basketball team whose entire gimmick is to [[ShowyInvincibleHero win every time by blatantly breaking the rules in amusing ways and showing off]]) get him in trouble with the mafia. His most frivolous wastes of money in the same episode include using a string of pearls and a rare comic book to light his cigarettes and buying a new house ''because his old one was dirty''.

** Subverted in "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E1YourShoesUntiedSquidsDayOff Squid's Day Off]]": [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward]] leaves [=SpongeBob=] in charge of the Krusty Krab (Mr. Krabs was in the hospital and Squidward wanted a day off). He has an ImagineSpot where Patrick asks for change for a cent, and [=SpongeBob=] gives away all the money on the till. Squidward runs to check that everything is okay, and tests [=SpongeBob=] by asking him for change of a dollar; [=SpongeBob=] proceeds to recite every possible combination of coins that he could get for it until Squidward simply goes away.

* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' has Oscar not paying his dues at the Whale Wash.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', Atticus is revealed to be this [[spoiler:after completing ''The Indigo Disk'']]. He's into fashion and made all of his friends' Team Star uniforms, and he believes that no expense should be spared when it comes to making good clothes. However, Atticus ended up buying ''way'' more fabric than he ended up needing, so most of it ended up going to waste. [[spoiler:Eri and the player character convince him to put more effort into studying math so he can get better at budgeting.]]

One common situation where this occurs is when someone discovers a ''Creator/HomeShoppingNetwork'' style TV show and starts wildly ordering all sorts of products, whether they need them or not. This trope is usually used as a means for comedy, but can quickly become dramatic, especially if they [[RetailTherapy rely on spending money to lift their mood]].

** In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS20E21ALittleExtraScratch A Little Extra Scratch]]", he invested everything into pornographic pogs, which his financial advisor warned him ''not'' to do. He ends up at risk of losing the house.

A character that is this trope isn't necessarily broke all the time, they mostly make unnecessary, frivolous spends without any idea of how much they're wasting in comparison to the amount they earn or have. In fact, very often the characters that exhibit this trait are in fact extremely wealthy (usually due to family money), and have simply never ''needed'' to learn to manage that money because they can burn as much as they want, and never run out. When this is the case, the characters are meant to come off as IdleRich or RichInDollarsPoorInSense. Across the board, though, this trope is usually meant to further a character's depiction as a {{Manchild}}, naive, untrustworthy, delusional about their goals and/or incapable (or unwilling) to deal with the challenges of adult life.

BrokeEpisode, ShockinglyExpensiveBill, and CreditCardPlot is what happens when a person's excessive spending comes back to bite them. When women are stereotypically portrayed as being dumb with money, that's MsRedInk. If wastefulness with money is a sign of evil, it's WickedWastefulness. Compare/Contrast GreedMakesYouDumb, which is about people loses profit trying to get rich.

** Hyodo, in season 3, is the manager of an underground idol group, but is shown to be terrible at managing the group's finances. He spends more money than the group makes in more merchandise than they can sell for the '''very''' small amount of fans the group has. It's not until Retsuko wrestles the control of the group's finances out of him that the group starts making a profit, and even then, he still slips up again by splurging on new instruments for the group to only then tell everyone to learn them.
** Retsuko herself zigzags this. While she manages to make the OTM Girls turn in a profit and is an accountant by trade, she was shown to be capable of splurging her way into getting broke. In fact, on the season 3 start, she has become broke by spending all her savings on microtransactions for virtual clothes for her virtual boyfriend in a video game and is reduced to having to eat bread crust for lunch until her next paycheck.

* Hinata Miyakawa from the ''Manga/LuckyStar'' spinoff ''Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku'' is an {{Otaku}} who has very poor impulse control when it comes to buying anime, manga and any related merchandise. The main reason she and her sister Hikage live in poverty is because she keeps blowing her paycheck on otaku merch.

* ''Film/TheCastle'' has the second son, Steve Kerrigan, whose main hobby is said to be browsing the trading post. Throughout the movie he announces a number of odd things he's found for sale and wants to buy, such as jousting sticks, a pulpit, and a chicken coop.
* The titular character of ''Film/TheElectricalLifeOfLouisWain'' is absolutely terrible with money. Despite the widespread popularity of his art, he did not think to copyright any of it and thus does not make anything from reproductions. What money he does get is spent on frivolous purchases, and his unmarried sisters fall deeper into debt.

* In ''Literature/CombatantsWillBeDispatched'', Snow is remarkably bad with her money. She often spends extreme amounts of money and/or takes out loans to buy expensive swords, which get consistently lost or broken anyways. When she explains to Alice and Six that she got kicked out of the castle, the flashback even shows Snow carrying a backpack full of swords instead of the expected necessities like food or water. This can be at least partly explained by Snow's upbringing in poverty; because she never learned to properly manage money, [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted she spends whatever money she does get irresponsibly quickly, to the point that she ends up consistently broke]].

* In Creator/MegCabot's ''How to be Popular'', Stephanie's best friend Jason is quite rich, but is well-known to be absolutely atrocious at handling money, to the extent that the only way he was able to save up enough to buy his first car was to give his allowance directly to Stephanie for safekeeping. (She, by contrast, is extremely good with money, almost to TeenGenius levels, at least in that one specific area.)

* ''Literature/{{Shopaholic}}'' follows a woman that has severe compulsion for buying clothes and luxury items, leading her to be entirely in debt for the most part of her adult life. All of her purchases are frivolous and/or unnecessary (though she always rationalizes for what she needed to buy it).

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Having been rich for their entire lives, the Bluth family is terrible with money, since they have so much to burn that they don't necessarily need to ''manage'' it. The family burns a lot of money sustaining Lindsay and Gob, two members of the family that bring in no money at all and don't even believe they need or should work for it; Lindsay being a liberal activist that spends her time jumping from one cause to another, while Gob is virtually useless in every job he takes and spends his time trying and failing to make it as a magician and spending the family money in expensive but unimpressive tricks. When the patriarch of the family is arrested and they lose much of their access to money during the investigation, the family is still incapable of taking care of money, simply demanding that the protagonist Michael make money appear out of thin air. A line from Lucille stating that she thinks each banana costs 10 dollars and shows how disconnected they are from reality.
* On ''Series/{{Ballers}}'' Spencer Strasmore is a former NFL football player who was hit by this trope during his days as a sports star. He earned a lot of money but he put most of it into stupid investments and had the rest embezzled by crooked managers. When an injury forced him to retire from football he found himself with very little money. Learning from his mistakes, he got a job at a financial management company that handles money for sports stars. As a financial manager it is his job to avert this trope on behalf of his clients who are earning millions but are prone to spending their money as fast as they receive it. Spencer has to go to great lengths to convince them to invest for the future so they do not repeat his mistakes.

* ''Series/{{Blackish}}'': In one episode, Bow admits she let's Dre take control of the family's finances, as she finds it confusing and intimidating. It turns out, Dre is just as confused by finances as she is. The episode ends with Dre and Bow agreeing to work together to help understand the family's finances.

* ''Series/Charmed1998'', the episode "[[Recap/CharmedS3E18SinFrancisco Sin Francisco]]" saw the main characters become cursed with the Seven Deadly Sins. Piper is cursed with Gluttony and orders at least thousands of dollars of things she clearly didn't need.

* ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'': Rebecca is hinted to be one through the early episodes, wasting money without thinking about it, then it's confirmed in the BrokeEpisode of the first season. She was earning so much money in her previous job she never had to worry about managing it, and when she accepted a job with a much lesser pay, she soon went broke.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Lily and Marshall through season 2 and 3. Lily turns out to have been secretly collecting a huge debt in credit cards due to compulsive shopping whenever she is stressed. Marshall is ignorant of this debt, but he actively worsen their situation in season 3 when he decides that they should buy a house instead of renting (as Ted narrates, it was neither a good investment nor was the market any good, as he believed to be). When they have a fallout due to Lily's debt, they still decide to buy the house anyway. Ted mentions in his narration that Marshall says he committed three great mistakes in his life and buying that house was the worst one. Through the following episodes they fall in deep debt fixing one thing after the other and making financial mistakes, it's not until late in season 3 when things start getting better as Ted sells his car to pay part of their debt.

** Jean-Ralphio and Mona Lisa are a pair of siblings that descend from a rich family. Both have the terrible habit of making frivolous purchases or burning money in terrible business ideas. They eventually have to resort to faking their own deaths for insurance money. Jean-Ralphio also mentions that his parents made the (probably wise) decision to not give him access to his trust fund until he's fifty.
** Tom, at least on the beginning and due to influence from Jean-Ralphio, has a tendency of trying to live a luxury lifestyle without the budget for one, which includes buying things he can't afford with the full intention of returning by pretending that those things harmed him. When he and Jean-Ralphio open a business, they burn all their money in decorations, a large warehouse, overpaying their employees (who have nothing to do), and hiring professional basketball players to play for them, all to keep appearances. He eventually gets better when his business fails and he starts another, smaller one, by himself.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': Michael was mentioned to be in debt before, but in Season 4's "Money", he is shown to be having to take a second job to pay for his debts, not helped by his live-in girlfriend Jan wasting their money and having no idea of the debt issue. When Oscar analyzes his spends, he realizes that Michael's issues come from unnecessary purchases.
* In ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', Carrie has a very well paid job, but spends everything she earns on her extravagant lifestyle: fashionable clothes, nightclubs, dining out, etc. As such she lives paycheque to paycheque and has no investments, assets or savings
* ''Series/{{Superstore}}'': Marcus is already not the sharpest tool, but he is revealed to not be good with money either. One season has a running gag that he invested all his money in a poorly thought out business of making cheese out of breast milk. Season 4's "Salary" reveals that he doesn't even know his own income, believing his retail work was paying him 134k a year because he thought the minimum wage was 10 times higher than what it actually is. Once coming to this, he realizes he is in deep debt (because he was already in debt when he thought he was making 134k), [[spoiler:leaving him homeless, living on his car and sleeping on a backroom of the store before he just starts freeloading at Mateo's aunt's place.]]
* Patricia "La Peliteñida" Fernández of ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea''. She was from a rich family and married a wealthy man, but ultimately lost her fortune after getting divorced. She constantly boasts of how she made "six semesters of finances in San Marino College" yet has no idea how to handle money at all, and continues hellbent in leading the same life-style she had before (with hilariously disastrous consequences).

** Al's daughter Kelly and son Bud would rather mooch off his nearly non-existent paycheck than actually earn money. Kelly's being a DumbBlonde makes it even worse. She enjoys calling a heavy metal hotline that charges $3 for the first minute and 50 cents for each extra minute. To avoid extra charges, [[EpicFail she'd hang up after the first minute and repeatedly call back]]. Al {{Face Palm}}s in frustration at her stupidity.
** Al's wife Peggy is the absolute worst, though. She's the embodiment of MsRedInk, running up {{Shockingly Expensive Bill}}s on worthless junk and pointless luxuries (ranging from a $2,000 interior design class to a $2,500 painting of herself to a storage locker to hold all the things she buys at yard sales and the Home Shopping Network to fur coats to visiting male nudie bars) while outright refusing to get a job and help pay for her spending binges. Even when she ''tries'' to make money, she usually just makes things worse. She got a job selling makeup, and received huge commission cheques. Unfortunately, since she couldn't sell the poor-quality products to anyone, she just paid for it herself. Al looks like he's about to have a stroke when he tries (and fails) to explain to Peg that she's paying more money for the cosmetics than she's getting back in commissions.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': To get to the city of Thavnair quickly, the Warrior of Light, Urianger, and Thancred undergo an experimental process that allows teleportation to a location that the individual has not yet visited and attuned themselves to, a normal requirement for such teleporting. It works, but leaves all three of them ill from aether sickness. This prompts Estinien, who was already attuned to Thavnair and could teleport without the extra steps, to go looking for something to settle their stomachs. Only after he's left does Thancred remember he was given explicit instruction to not let Estinien wander the markets alone, as he is terrible with coin. Cue the Warrior of Light stumbling around to find Estinien before he gets himself conned. When Estinien is found, he's gotten drinks to help everyone else, and also spent an exorbitant amount of money on a piece of string to tie his hair with.

** Eri Katamaki, the young CEO of Ichiban Confections, inherited the company from her father when he passed away, but was anything but ready for it. Her poor hiring choices, bad money management decisions and being victim of a scam by the sidestory's ArcVillain drove the once flourishing company in the red. She's painfully aware she's not suited for the job, and hands Kasuga the reins to get Ichiban Confections back on top.
** Despite being much older, Koichi Adachi has absolutely no sense of fiscal responsibility. He claims to not believe in the concept of personal savings so he's very quick to spend any money he makes on booze and girls, instead hoping to coast on his eventual pension. Unfortunately his actions in the prologue of the game gets him fired, causing him to lose said pension and wind up just as broke as Ichiban and Nanba.

* Nicole Demara from ''VideoGame/ZenlessZoneZero'' runs Gentle House/The Cunning Hares, an incredibly competent mercenary outfit who do things from heists to illegally venturing into highly dangerous space-time anomalies called "Hollows." Though she is competent enough on the field, her financial management leaves much to be desired, as her lavish spending habits means the organization is constantly in the red no matter how much income they pull in from each successful job. Her horrific penny-pinching habits, like buying a month's worth of frozen meals that ''have already expired or expire in a few days'' as employee meals, just helps emphasize how poorly she can manage finances.

* In "WebVideo/TheLastDaysOfDrWily", Wily's robot designer Greg dumped an exorbitant amount of money into ludicrously-expensive Robot Master concepts such as Rolls Royce Man, Fabergé Egg Man, and Honus Wagner Card Man.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Richard is shown to be this, to the point that his wife doesn't trust him with money at all. This trait leads to the BrokeEpisode "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS3E39TheMoney The Money]]", where he understands depositing money in an offshore account as throwing money in the sea.

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Linda Belcher zigzaggs this trope. On one hand, she is the one to actually manage the expenses of the restaurant, she has an extremely complex system through which she controls bounces with the bank and manages to keep their heads above the water. However, whenever something she, or someone she likes, really wants shows up, she has a terrible time controlling herself with what [[PerpetualPoverty little money her family has]]. This is best exemplified in "[[Recap/BobsBurgersS3E23TheUnnatural The Unnatural]]", where she pawns off Bob's espresso machine to pay for baseball lessons for Gene that everyone warns her to be an obvious scam, and "[[Recap/BobsBurgersS10E15YurtyRottenScoundrels Yurty Rotten Scoundrels]]", where she freely loans her unhinged sister, Gayle, money to rent a yurt and make an art workshop, even though she is a terrible artist and even Linda herself admits that it's unlikely they'll ever see a return on that money; Bob even says that this is a recurring occurrence when Gayle is involved. It's possible that the family being constantly near financial ruin but never past it are both because of Linda, as she insists on financing her sister's life and whims, but maintains the restaurant working anyway.

** Mr. Peanutbutter ends up hosting ''Hollywoo Stars: What Do They Know! Do They Know Things? Let's Find Out!'' when it's discovered that he's broke from throwing his money at all kinds of dumb ideas that never sold, such as catcher's mitts to catch bagels out of the toaster.
** [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanBoJackHorseman BoJack himself]] is only narrowly better than Mr. Peanutbutter -- since he made enough money from ''Horsin' Around'' that he has never had to work since his late 20s, he is prone to waste money without thinking of it twice. One of his most frivolous purchases was buying an entire restaurant on a whim. Later seasons show that he has even forgot to manage said restaurant and the staff has been taking care of itself.

** Withdrawn 6000 dollars to make an "important" PSA that solely consist of him singing "Bird is the Word".

* ''WesternAnimation/PetAlien'': None of the aliens are particularly bright regarding money, to the point where they've forced Tommy into crippling debt numerous times by buying things he can't afford. "Shipping and Handling Not Included" highlights this aspect of their characters: when they mistakenly believe they've won a million dollars through junk mail, they immediately spend all of Tommy's money on random items from a shopping channel. Swanky in particular tries to buy ''thousands'' of faberge eggs.

** Krusty the Clown is routinely shown to be careless with his expenses, relying on a ridiculous amount of cheap merchandising keeping him afloat. This becomes a plot device in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]", where wasteful spending and incompetent gambling (as in, betting ''against'' the Harlem Globetrotters, an exhibition basketball team whose entire gimmick is to [[ShowyInvincibleHero win every time by blatantly breaking the rules in amusing ways and showing off]]) get him in trouble with the mafia. His most frivolous wastes of money in the same episode include using a string of pearls and a rare comic book to light his cigars and buying a new house ''because his old one was dirty''.

[[/folder]]

BrokeEpisode, ShockinglyExpensiveBill, and CreditCardPlot is what happens when a person's excessive spending [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome comes back to bite them]]. When women are stereotypically portrayed as being dumb with money, that's MsRedInk. If wastefulness with money is a sign of evil, it's WickedWastefulness. Compare/Contrast GreedMakesYouDumb, which is about people loses profit trying to get rich.

** In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather. He ended up losing it -- not in stocks or bonds, [[EpicFail but by leaving it on the bus]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': [[Characters/AmericanDadStanSmith Stan Smith]] is oftentimes shown to be horribly irresponsible with managing money. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", when he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather, he ended up losing it... [[EpicFail on the bus, that is]]. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS8E15LessMoneyMoProblems Less Money, Mo' Problems]]", when he was in charge of handling $938 to live on minimum wage for a month, he loses almost ''all'' of it overnight by spending it on frivolous things, becoming homeless as a result. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS20E21ALittleExtraScratch A Little Extra Scratch]]", he invested everything into pornographic pogs, which his financial advisor warned him ''not'' to do; he ends up at risk of losing the house.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'': [[PointyHairedBoss Woody Johnson]] wastes the park's fundings on drugs, birthday party decorations, fossil fuels, plastic surgery, etc. The only time he shows concern with his money is when Malloy uses it on weapons and junk food without his consent.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'': [[PointyHairedBoss Woody Johnson]] wastes the park's findings on drugs, birthday party decorations, fossil fuels, plastic surgery, etc. The only time he shows concern with his money is when Malloy uses it on weapons and junk food without his consent.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': [[Characters/AmericanDadStanSmith Stan Smith]] is oftentimes shown to be horribly irresponsible with managing money. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", when he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather, he ended up losing it... [[EpicFail on the bus, that is]]. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS8E15LessMoneyMoProblems Less Money, Mo' Problems]]", when he was in charge of handling $938 to live on minimum wage for a month, he loses almost ''all'' of it overnight by spending it on frivolous things, becoming homeless as a result.

BrokeEpisode, ShockinglyExpensiveBill, and CreditCardPlot is what happens when a person's excessive spending [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome comes back to bite them]]. When women are stereotypically portrayed as being dumb with money, that's MsRedInk. If wastefulness with money is a sign of evil, it's WickedWastefulness.

BrokeEpisode, ShockinglyExpensiveBill, and CreditCardPlot is what happens when a person's excessive spending [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome comes back to bite them]]. When women are stereotypically portrayed as being dumb with money, that's MsRedInk.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'': [[PointyHairedBoss Woody Johnson]] wastes the park's findings on drugs, birthday party decorations, fossil fuels, plastic surgery, etc. The only time he shows concern with his money is when Malloy uses it on weapons and junk food without his consent

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': [[Characters/AmericanDadStanSmith Stan Smith]] is oftentimes shown to be horribly irresponsible with managing money. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", when he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather, he ended up losing it... [[EpicFail on the bus, that is]]. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS8E15LessMoneyMoProblems Less Money, Mo' Problems]]", when he was in charge of handling $967 to live on minimum wage for a month, he loses almost ''all'' of it overnight by spending it on frivolous things, becoming homeless as a result.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan Smith is oftentimes shown to be horribly irresponsible with managing money. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", when he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather, he ended up losing it... [[EpicFail on the bus, that is]]. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS8E15LessMoneyMoProblems Less Money, Mo' Problems]]", when he was in charge of handling $967 to live on minimum wage for a month, he loses almost ''all'' of it overnight by spending it on frivolous things, becoming homeless as a result.

** Bojack himself is only narrowly better than Mr. Peanutbutter: since he made enough money from ''Horsin' Around'' that he has never had to work since his late 20s, he is prone to waste money without thinking of it twice. One of his most frivolous purchases was buying an entire restaurant on a whim. Later seasons show that he has even forgot to manage said restaurant and the staff has been taking care of itself.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin simply ''cannot'' be trusted with money. One episode that takes place in the future reveals that Lois set up a secret bank account that Peter couldn't access, which she did after Peter spent Meg's college money on a ''medieval catapult''. Among the dumb money-related decisions Peter has made, he has:

** Homer himself is constantly throwing away his money due to a combination of impulse buying, his many [[ZanyScheme Zany Schemes]], and his overall [[TheDitz stupidity]].

** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS6E12PorousPocketsChoirBoys Porous Pockets]]" features [=SpongeBob=] getting extremely rich after stumbling upon a large diamond. He spends the episode giving away free money to the greedy crowd that attaches themselves to him and ignores Patrick's attempt to make him stop. He eventually runs out of money and everyone abandons him.
** Subverted in "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E1YourShoesUntiedSquidsDayOff Squid's Day Off]]": Squidward leaves [=SpongeBob=] in charge of the Krusty Krab (Mr. Krabs was in the hospital and Squidward wanted a day off). He has an ImagineSpot where Patrick asks for change for a cent, and [=SpongeBob=] gives away all the money on the till. Squidward runs to check that everything is okay, and tests [=SpongeBob=] by asking him for change of a dollar; [=SpongeBob=] proceeds to recite every possible combination of coins that he could get for it until Squidward simply goes away.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan Smith is oftentimes shown to be horribly irresponsible with managing money. in "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E6ThereWillBeBadBlood There Will Be Bad Blood]]", when he received $20,000 by his dying grandfather, he ended up losing it... [[EpicFail on the bus, that is]]. In "[[Recap/AmericanDadS8E15LessMoneyMoProblems Less Money, Mo' Problems]]", when he was in charge of handling $967 to live on minimum wage for a month, he loses almost ''all'' of it overnight by spending it on frivolous things, becoming homeless as a result.