Dillemma: Asking friends for money

Ok, I've gotten myself into a heap of shit here.

I've just paid for my share of the trip I'm taking to Vietnam in two weeks, which has pretty much almost stripped me bare of funds.
As bad as that sounds, it's a family trip, so I didn't have to pay for a whole lot anyway.
But as you know general everyday spending can suck up quite a bit already.

My problem is that I just got into a minor car accident.

I JUST got out of another car accident (luckily that wasn't my fault), but the fact that I'm in ANOTHER accident is something that's shitting me off.

In the back of my mind I'm expecting a huge astronomical sum of money I have to pay to them, and I'm a poor, currently unemployed uni student! >___<

What I've acheived so far is that I've offered to pay cash for the accident rather than go through insurance, cause I know they're gonna tear my ass off for damages.
I asked the lady (who was really nice) to go to 2 or 3 garages to get quotes, so I'd know a general price range.
If this deal does follow through, a car expert friend of mine said that I shouldn't expect anything more than $700-800, and I told the lady that I wouldn't be able to afford anything more than that.

The problem is I don't have a lot of cash to start with, so I've started asking a couple of friends to help me out with the payment, and that I'd pay them eventually.

The one thing I pride myself on is that I've never had to ask anyone for money.
I've also gladly given my friends money if they needed help and they've paid me back, which is all fine.

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What I wanna ask to everyone here is...

How do you guys feel about borrowing large sums of money from friends (and friends borrowing from you) in situations like this?
I don't like being in debt, but there are times when you feel like you have no choice. And it's not like I'm spending my money wrecklessly on material items or anything such that I need to be told off.


I realise though that it's open to interpretation. Some people will be harsher on this issue than others because of their experiences, but I'm welcome to all answers and feedback.

I just wanna know what you guys think.

Jam it back in, in the dark.