I thought that Time Machine is supposed to automatically delete old files to make room for new ones. Is there a work-around? (I do share the Time Capsule with another user's Mac in my home.)
That is the theory, but unfortunately the theory does not work all that well in practice.
Time Machine will usually not have much trouble automatically deleting older small "incremental" backups, to make room for new small incremental backups.......but.....when the Time Capsule hard drive is close to being at capacity.......and......the backup is larger than a normal small incremental type backup.......as can occur after an operating system update or a user has added a lot of new images or media to the Mac.......Time Machine cannot delete enough old data to make room for the new larger than normal backup.
When this occurs, you have two options:
One.....if you need all the old backups from weeks, months, and even years going back in time.......(few of us ever do).......you can copy or "archive" all of the data on the Time Capsule hard drive over to a USB drive connected at the USB port of the Time Capsule. Once the archive copy is complete, then you can erase the Time Capsule hard drive and start all over again with new backups.
Two.....If you don't really need all the old backups, you can simply erase the Time Capsule hard drive and start over again with a new backup of each Mac and work forward from the present time.