Bleeding Money - am I buying time?

I'm not sure what it is about fall but every year around this time as we approach the holidays  (and especially this one for some reason) I feel like I'm bleeding money. Big medical bills with sick kids, vet bills, quarterly water and sewer bills, a broken heater, you know - the regular stuff. Then you throw on top the "deals" that always start around now...the gifts - travel - big family meals. ARG! I don't know if it is just me but I feel like I'm bleeding money right now.

I'm not one to carry debt - I'm thankful my husband is a Virgo and I'm a Capricorn and we are OCD about our money....but for some reason having a house, pet, kids, cars, and whatever else we have is momentarily taking it's toll. I'm waiting for just one regular pay cycle for both of us from not having to take time without pay or starting a new job and I'm hoping we can at stitch it together.

I realize that since we are insanely dealing with two jobs and two daycare's we tired and this does seriously lead to overspending (in my opinion anyway). The other thing happening is that we got this tiny taste of what life is like when we have more family time together and we realize now more than ever that we are actually willing to spend more to buy time in a quality way. I mean, we are more willing now to pay for sustainable food cooked and delivered on a bike or eco friendly housecleaning just to buy us one more easy family meal and a few more hours enjoying our weekend.

And to some extent buying time is just what we are doing and well, I don't intend to stop that part of it - this time is going by so fast (my little one is already a year old) so I don't think we can afford NOT to do this now. I'm not sure where that puts us.... it is a crazy feeling right now... I guess money, things, and time will always be what drives us crazy (well, that and my kids at times).

What do you do this time of year to try to at least put a tourniquet on the spending. How do you deal with months where you have a lot of emergency spending and how do you not let that get you going down a slippery slope? I would love to know how other families are feeling about spending this time of year.