Hopefully as in clothes, too, but I mean financially

I don't know if everybody's finances have so many ups and downs, or if we're just going through an unusual period. I've read a lot about money management over the years, and always got the impression that you set up a budget and then things just kind of go along for the next year. But since I've been watching things more carefully over the past couple of months, it seems like prices are changing all the time, and I'm constantly fiddling to keep our cash flow positive.

DH's paychecks will be about $30 less a month Sept-Dec because we keep the traditional health insurance until January 1, and the price has gone up.

Natural gas for the house looks like it will be going up $13 a month. We did the "energy choice" option a few years back, where you could save money by choosing one company to supply the gas and another company to deliver it. Just got a letter from the supplier that they can't afford to offer the low price anymore, and we'll be getting our gas from the delivering gas company. Also, the delivering company's price is going up 4.4%. Together, it adds up to an increase of over 9%.

I've had to face facts and budget more for gas for the cars. Between DH and I, we need an additional $40+ a month for gas as prices stand now. There's only so far we can cut down our driving.

So that's another $83 a month I need to find, in addition to dealing with the $100 a month hit I'm taking on my paycheck by having more withholding taken out. And the $20 a month on higher property taxes. Where is it all supposed to come from? Judging from the past few months, the extra money does come in, whether from Amazon sales, rebate money, surveys, or whatever. I'd worry a little less if it were more predictable, though.

Our checking account doesn't have much of a cushion to begin with. First, I bought a lot of those gift cards at discount. They've all been paid for, and I feel good about doing it. But having so much tied up in the gift cards leaves us shorter of actual cash for the moment. Also, we've been hit with some unexpected repairs.

We already paid $64 for two trips to diagnose the washer problem. The plumbing problem we discovered while trying to figure out the washer came to $80. Now we know the washer definitely needs a part, which will come to $126 installed, next week. That's $370 on emergencies this month--$270 to solve the current problem, and $100 for the minimum balance in the new emergency savings account I opened.

I'm just waiting to see what the new car insurance bill will be, then I'll have a better idea where we stand, at least through December.