Please help

[YOSHITAKEHORI]

In the following passage, I cannot understand the underlined part correctly.
Would you please help me understand?
1. The first one is , Can I understand that it means " If she had tried a little harder,she could have saved." ? So actually she failed to save money?
2. The second one is , why does this sentence use the word "borrow"?
The person who wanted to borrow is Carrie herself, I think it shoule be
"lend" , which is confusing me.
Thank you!
Qot
Oh, Carrie really did try her best to save for this day. But there was that one Susie Woosie doll she just had to have because all the other girls at school had one, too. These days, that doll was just sitting in the closet getting dustier and dustier each day. Mind you, it was pretty expensive, but that was the only thing that Carrie really spent any money on. Otherwise, she was saving up for her mom’s birthday present (Well...there was that cute little piggy bank she needed so she could keep all her money she saved. And, well, I guess there was the Susie Woosie makeup and accessory kit that, of course, all Susie Woosies needed - how could anyone take care of Susie Woosie if you didn’t have one of those! Oh, and there was Carrie’s CD / Radio / DVD / TV / PC combination glow in the dark nightstand that also told the time, sang ten songs and woke her up one hour before school). Okay, so she could have tried a little harder to save. But now all she had was seven dollars and eighty-five cents. What was Carrie going to do?
There was no way she could ask her mom to borrow the money. How was she going to explain to her mom what the money was for? And Dexter, he's a dog, he doesn't have any money! No, Carrie also had her pride. She wanted to get something for her mom by herself. But what was Carrie going to do?
UNqot

[riverkid]

YOSHITAKEHORI: In the following passage, I cannot understand the underlined part correctly.
Would you please help me understand?
1. The first one is , Can I understand that it means " If she had tried a little harder,she could have saved." ? So actually she failed to save money?

Hi Yoshitake. Someone else is describing Carrie's plight, correct? That person said; "Okay, so she could have tried a little harder to save".

Let me try to paraphrase it.

Okay, I'll admit that Carrie didn't try very hard to save. She should have tried harder.

Does that help you understand?

2. The second one is , why does this sentence use the word "borrow"?
The person who wanted to borrow is Carrie herself, I think it should be
"lend" , which is confusing me.


There was no way she could ask her mom to borrow the money.

I think this can be viewed from two different perspectives.

One: Mom, can I borrow some money?

= There was no way she could ask her mom [in order] to borrow the money.

Two: Mom, can you lend me some money?

= There was no way she could ask her mom to [lend her] the money.

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Another perspective could be:
There was no way she could ask her Mom to borrow the money (for her from other people).

[YOSHITAKEHORI]

riverkid,
Jamshid,

Thank you for your explanations! Thanks to yours, I could
understand it.