I’m so so upset about this!

You’re charging your own sister for babysitting. And you also want her to pay for your whole Christmas.
You’re a pain in the arse sister. I have one of those- grasping and entitled rather than self sufficient. We no longer communicate

Should I say anything!

What would you say? Most people wouldn't want to give £500 away, to be asked is awkward.
If you pressure her or demand she makes excuses it'll be even more awkward and likely end your relationship with her.

@LaurieFairyCake - sadly I can believe it. SIL1 has regularly tapped up DH for money at Christmas to buy presents for her dc (grown up now). I also know that she has bitched dh and me up for being extravagant, capitalist bastards. She's 63, and has never had a proper job and neither has her partner since he was about 30.

DH is nicer than me and sends it to her and doesn't expect repayment.

I 'd like to know why the op is skint.

That's a really pathetic thing to say.

Personally I think YABU and shouldn't say anything. She probably didn't have it because of the expense of the new car. FWIW I do sympathise with you, Christmas is a bloody hard time when funds are tight, but your sis's finances are her own business and it's not likely to go over well if you say anything about this.

Is this the new mindset? I guess it was mirrored in the budget. You have stuff you’ve worked for….give it to me!

Im sorry you are going through a hard time but I have expensive toiletries and holidays booked etc, but I in no way would just have £500 to give you. I save for those holidays and I buy stuff on Vinted etc and my money is planned out months in advance.
And honestly, if you said to me, im broke, could you lend me 74 quid, 24 for a tree, 20 for craft stuff so me and the kids could make decorations and 30 because one of the kids has their heart set on a specific thing, id totally get it and would try and sell something or scrape stuff together to help, but if you asked me for just 500 quid I'd be like... do you have a list of stuff you need and it comes to exactly £500 or are you wanting 500 which you will then try to get the most out of, in which case lets talk, maybe I have decorations I can share, maybe ive got loyalty points we can use for food and toys, maybe I can help you search for stuff on Vinted or Ebay. Id be worried about you panicking and spending the full 500 because its there, and then having that hang over your head as a loan, rather than working together to see if you only need 280 to make christmas work.

Not really much of a fabrication, OP has been struggling financially for 5 years, has failed to save for an event that happens every single year and now wants to borrow a large amount of money. What’s magically changing in January that means OP will have a spare £500 to pay back her sister? It’s clearly a risk to lend that money to her.

I wonder if her paying you to look after your nieces (when they were in bed) was her way of trying to help you. And this is how you repay her

Give over. Sometimes it’s luck and circumstance. Most of the time it’s graft.

Absolutely hilarious.

Let's not start fabricating things eh?

I would NEVER do this to my sister. She is minted and ridiculously generous and instead of envy I enjoy watching her enjoy the rewards of her very hard job.

You snooped in her house. It’s unforgivable.

Oh behave. That’s not what I meant and you know it

Christmas is once a year.
You have had 11 months to buy bits to put aside.

I imagine she said no because she knew you wouldn’t pay it back.

Quite!

I'm sorry that you've had a hard time but why do you think that your sister and her husband should do without their normal toiletries and not buy a car (probably on hp) which at £25000 is not a flash car if brand new?
Its your responsibility to save for your Christmas not hers, she has her own family to buy for and tbh £500 is a lot to ask for especially in the run up to Christmas

The fact that your sister has nice things doesn’t mean she’s morally obliged to lend you money, OP. There’s a compelling school of thought that says that lending money to family and friends is a bad idea anyway. I am sorry you’re struggling, though. This time of year is tough for a lot of people.

Not necessarily. Can we stop with the narrative that those who have a lot of money have done something special to merit it. Often it's down to luck or circumstances beyond anyone's control. I say that as someone who is reasonably well-off and probably doesn't "deserve" to be. We really don't live in a meritocracy and hard work does not mean lots of money. And people who are well- off have rarely done anything to warrant that. It's mostly luck.

lol as if this is real 😂

1. charging to look after your asleep nieces/nephews
2. snooping round the house
3. googling the cost of things
4. envy
5. failing to save up for the least expected event of the year

clickbait bollocks

You absolutely WERE snooping. You need to at least be honest with yourself about that.

She didn’t have the £500, she’d spent it on a car deposit.
How do you know how much money she has?
Googling her shampoo to find out the cost is just setting yourself up for jealousy and resentment.
im sorry you’ve gone through a tough time but your sister doesn’t owe you anything. She’s actually paid you to babysit your niece/nephew. I have only ever paid teenagers to babysit.

She didn’t have the money - she’d already ordered a car.

She can spend her money however she wants - you can’t expect her to sit with a ‘lend my sister money’ fund at the ready at all times.

YABVVVVU

Hang on, I’ve just reread that. Did you charge her for babysitting? I mean she literally gave you money to look after your nieces and nephews for a couple hours? And you call her tight?

YABU. YABVU!!!

Your sister doesn't have to give you anything.

Stop living beyond your means. £500 for Christmas?!?!? That's ridiculous!