Learn English – Words to describe a person or a group of person who think themselves elite, but I don’t think so

Let me start by saying that "troubled past" doesn't describe loss or grieving. Usually a person with a troubled past has had difficulties with the law, substance abuse, difficult childhood, or the like in his past.

I will assume that you are misusing the term troubled past and are actually referring to a person who is attempting to recover from a personal tragedy of some sort. Looking up "recovering" in a thesaurus gives several alternatives: getting over, picking up, perking up, picking up the pieces, feeling better, getting his life back together, coming along. In all these cases except getting over, you can say "He's had a personal tragedy, but he's [picking up/perking up/etc] now." With getting over, you'd have to say "he's getting over it now."

You may also say "He's recovering from a personal tragedy" or "He's getting over a personal tragedy." The others would work a bit differently: "He's getting his life back together after a personal tragedy", for example. You can use after in the same way with most of the others (you can use it with recover as well), but I wouldn't say "picking up after a personal tragedy" because it can easily be confused with the more literal sense of picking up: "picking up after a party" would mean gathering the trash. If I were going to use picking up, I would say "picking up after having had a personal tragedy". This sounds hopelessly stilted to me, so I wouldn't use it.

There are quite a few words that can be insulting about someone who doesn't like to spend money.

A miser is

a mean grasping person; especially : one who is extremely stingy with money

"stingy" is also kind of insulting, as it describes someone who is "not generous",

not liking or wanting to give or spend money

A scrooge is someone who is a miser and stingy:

her father is a real scrooge and refuses to pay her way through college, even though he can easily afford it

This word comes from the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol - Ebenezer Scrooge is a rich but very mean man who makes his employees work long hours for little pay.

Here's a picture of someone in the role of Mr Scrooge:

A "tightwad" and a "cheapskate" are also people who don't like to spend money. These words are a bit less negative, though: the person may not like to share or help others, but they are not as mean as a miser or a scrooge.

"cheap" is another good word. It is also used for things of poor quality, so it suggests a person of low morals or class who is also stingy.