Goodbye, emergency fund

Not really goodbye, per se, but I transferred a large portion of our emergency fund over to our checking account yesterday when I realized there was no other way to pay off the dental work in short order. I want to have that all taken care of and paid off by the end of this week. I cringed as I made the transaction, but reminded myself that this is why emergency funds exist. At least we have one, even if it's looking a lot skinnier now.

Random medical/dental bills aside, there are a few regular payments that always take a significant chunk out of our account. The biggest ones:

-Mortgage ($1550 a month)

-Student loan payments ($730 a month between the two of us - I LONG to get rid of these)

-Health insurance ($400 a month between the three of us)

-Cell phone bill ($110 a month for both of us... This seems really high, but I do love my iPhone and being able to access the Internet anywhere I go.)

Other expenses include car insurance, gas and electricity, water, home owner's association dues, cable/Internet (we cut back here a few months ago and it's been well worth it), and our Netflix membership. None of these seem unreasonable.

Clearly, there's no getting around the mortgage or the student loans, and I'm not willing to ditch the health insurance. We do continue to look for ways to cut back in other areas so that when emergencies arise, we don't have to scrounge around for cash to pay for them.