A Flutterbudget woman
- "Foolish fears, and worries over nothing, with a mixture of nerves and ifs, will soon make a Flutterbudget of any one."
- ―The Wizard
Flutterbudgets are people who entertain foolish fears and spend time worrying over nothing. They have jittery nerves and make frequent use of the word "if".
In the Land of Oz the Flutterbudgets are gathered together into one town: Flutterbudget Center. (The Emerald City of Oz)
Dorothy and her family encounter them while traveling through their town on a tour of Oz. One of the Flutterbudgets cautions them not to run over her child with their wagon (though the child in question is safely inside her home); a man begs them for help because his wife "cut her finger off", but it turned out she only pricked her finger while sewing; another man is afraid to go to sleep because his eyelids might stick together and blind him; and a woman worries about what would happen if she threw her child out the window, despite not having done that yet. It is hinted that anyone in Oz can potentially become a Flutterbudget, and if they do, Ozma sends them to Flutterbudget Center.
One Flutterbudget, Geraldine Fussy, is named in the society column of the 1926 Ozmapolitan.