My dear cheapskate: "My mother still receives pocket money from her parents at 60"

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A desire for control and withholding, an inability to give in every sense of the word... Being around a stingy person is a source of immense suffering. The energy they expend saving exhausts and hurts others, but that doesn't matter: living alone, for some, is preferable to the idea of ​​having to share, support, and please. In this episode, Camille, 33, experiences it every time she sees her mother: from recounting her small change to paying for cigarettes, their story has always been based on a calculated, accounting relationship.

“My mother is by far the most stingy person I know. I didn't realize it when I was little; yet, looking back, I remember her counting all the small change when I bought bread to make sure I didn't keep ten cents for myself. Around 16 or 17, when I started getting my first summer jobs, she wanted to impose very strict rules on how I should manage this salary. She refused, for example, to let me use this money to go out for a drink on a terrace with friends: for her, the important thing was to save up to buy things you wanted later.

"My parents had a very complicated divorce. When I was 12, my mother found herself without