JESSICA'S CASH CRISIS

A major business decision - and reckless spending - has left Jessica Simpson drowning in debt and begging her mother for money

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Jessica Simpson needed some new garbage cans. But instead of ordering top-of-the-line name-brand trash receptacles, she headed to a HomeGoods discount store in June to hunt for a bargain, she confesses in a new interview. In the same sit-down, she also admits it "might be the last time" she'll be wearing her gold rings and bracelets - "because I might have to sell them."

Yes, Jessica - who once ran a billion-dollar empire is down and out. "She's feeling a major financial crunch, which is a huge 180 from her old life, where finances were never a concern and she bought the best of everything," a source tells In Touch. But over the past couple of years, a run of bad luck involving her company's management forced the actress and former reality star, 43, to go into massive debt and make "big lifestyle changes." Things have gotten so tight, "I did have to ask my mother for money not too long ago," Jessica confesses. She and her family - husband Eric Johnson, 43, and kids Maxwell, 11, Ace, 10, and Birdie, 4 - have been learning to live on a budget, she says, because "I don't have it in me to borrow money from my mother [again]."

RISKING IT ALL