Make my money work!

So I think I'm usually pretty good with money...but lately things just don't seem to be working. I've been married for almost a year, lost my full-time teaching job a year ago and have been working part time since. We use mint.com, and have been working hard to follow a budget, but we still have too many months when our balance is in the red. A few years ago that would have seemed like a huge emergency, but now it's happening regularly. Here, I'll try to explore how regular people in our situation can make things come out more even.

I've been reading books and peoples' blogs and finance sites and forums, looking for some insight. So far I've come up with: we need to earn more money. I would prefer to spend less, as well, but boy is that hard sometimes. And my husband and I have been working and compromising to make that more palatable. When we have a "normal" month, it comes out ok. But we've had two months with major dental work, and I don't have my regular teaching jobs over the summer, so here we are. I'll let you know how it goes.