A quote from Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh):

Well, I’m the worst person to come to for advice. I’ve never been “short” as you so painfully call it. And yet what else could you sya? Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stony-broke? On the rocks? In Queer Street? Let us say in Queer Street and leave it that way.