Yup - he has often told stories about how they were frequently poor, were on food stamps, etc. It's sort of like the mentality people who grew up during the great depression had: there is a massive uncertainty in the back of their mind that the good times might end, so they become extremely frugal and try to avoid spending money.
I mean if you think about what he probably pays in terms of regular expenses, it's probably just property tax, utilities, food, and presumably at least auto insurance since he has a car. I wouldn't be shocked if he doesn't have other types of insurance, unless his businesses have group medical/etc and he gets it through that.
In any event, at least he is making an effort in trying to clean up all that crap in his house. The hardest step to take with that sort of hording/etc is the first one - they usually have intense anxiety that if they get rid of something, then something bad might happen that could have been averted if they kept it. Once they get over that anxiety hump, it isn't as bad. The next hardest step is to prevent future hording and buildup of crap once you've cleaned stuff out.