So are Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott broke or not?

So how broke are Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott? We’re getting the feeling that it’s all relative.

As in, relative to the super-rich lifestyle she had when she was younger.

When Spelling told People magazine on Thursday that she and McDermott were in tough enough financial straits that they couldn’t afford a vasectomy for him after four kids, headlines broke out all over proclaiming the couple flat broke.

Spelling, the daughter of TV producer Aaron Spelling, reportedly received only $800,000 as an inheritance when her father passed away in 2006. That from a family famous for its 57,000-square-foot, $150-million mansion, which Tori’s mom, Candy Spelling, sold in 2011.

But McDermott would beg to differ about how their financial situation has been perceived. “Right now things are going well,” McDermott, 46, told Us Weekly on Friday, noting that he has several projects in the works, and that his wife has her new book, “Spelling It Like It Is,” out this week.

And he said yeah, they probably could have sprung for the vasectomy, which their business manager had advised against for financial reasons.

Indeed, even Spelling told People (via Huffington Post): “We’re all about repurposing. It’s a really good value to have.” Hence hand-me-down clothes for the four kids, which is hardly a hardship for most people. And she says she hasn’t bought a handbag for three years -- that after buying them at Gucci when she was younger. Um, boo-hoo? Those things last forever.

“[We’re] in the entertainment business,” she added, “and things change year to year. We don’t have a series on the air right now, so we have to be more restrictive of what we can spend, just like anyone who currently doesn’t have a steady job.”

And really, how broke can people be if they still have a business manager to listen to? We’re just sayin’ ...

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PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times