March was a monumental month in my life — it marked my move to full-time blogger. (Look at all that alliteration!) I spent the first few weeks of this new existence catching up on long-neglected blog chores, but have now begun to focus on my writing. I’m excited about the weeks and months to come!
Here are some of the posts I especially liked this month:

March 4th: Uncommon lifestyles and the truth about The 4-Hour Workweek: An interview with Tim Ferriss
March 5th: How to inoculate your children against advertising (a guest post from Lisa Tiffin)
March 6th: How to prevent identity theft — deter, detect, defend
March 17th: Luck is no accident: 10 ways to get more out of work and life
March 20th: The negative saving rate and the age of easy credit
March 23rd: The magic of thinking small
March 25th: What’s not to love about a new car? (a guest post from Katrina Ramser)
March 31st: Drama in [...]

When we arrived in San Francisco on Thursday, I rented a car. It was the first time I’d ever done so — we’ve never used one on vacation, and this was my first business trip. The whole car rental thing was a mystery to me.
When the man at the rental counter asked me what sort of insurance I wanted to purchase, I told him I had my own. In truth, I had forgotten to research my coverage. I was placing faith in what I’d read many times before — that car rentals are generally covered by your own auto insurance and by your credit card.
On Saturday we drove to Berkeley. Kris took me to a nice restaurant for my birthday lunch, and I made a stop at a comic book store. (Where I bought nothing, by the way — I’ve come a long way!) We were driving back on University Avenue, stopped at an intersection, [...]

Earlier this week, the always-interesting kottke.org pointed to a couple of pieces on 99-cent fine dining. First, from the March 21st episode of National Public Radio’s Day to Day, comes a story about cooking gourmet with 99¢ food.

These days, the idea of making a three-course meal for a family of four for less than $20 can seem impossible. Unless, that is, you shop at the 99¢ Only Stores. There are more than 200 of them throughout the West — not to mention other bargain variations like the Dollar Store — true to their name, everything costs exactly 99 cents.
Christiane Jory thoroughly embraces this fact in her book, The 99¢ Only Stores Cookbook. The idea may sound silly, but the book is filled with recipes for gourmet items like gruyere beignets, salmon souffle and Pinot Noir poached pear tarts. Many of the recipes have been adapted from culinary classics like the Joy of Cooking and the [...]

Yesterday I attended a workshop in San Francisco devoted to personal finance and personal finance tools. This gathering — sponsored by Strands, Expensr, and NetworthIQ — brought together a handful of bloggers to discuss the financial challenges our readers face, and the things they’re looking for in a personal finance tool. (Thus my question on Thursday.)
Though I’m interested to see what sort of application these three companies eventually produce, the highlight of the event for me was meeting some of my colleagues for the first time. I’m impressed. On the whole, personal finance bloggers are a smart and funny bunch with a genuine passion for the topic. Attendees included:

Cap from Stop Buying Crap
SVB from The Digerati Life
Sam from Getting Finances Done
James from DINKS Personal Finance
John from Queercents
Lazy Man from Lazy Man and Money
Jeffrey from Saving Advice
Flexo from Consumerism Commentary
Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
J.D. from Get Rich Slowly

For eight hours, we talked about money and [...]

GRS reader Dan recently wrote to share a story I hear often. Many people are afraid to ask for a better deal — they think it’s not worth the effort. Dan has decided that it is:

I thought I’d share a short story about credit cards.  I’ve been using them for eight years now, and have always paid my bill in full every month.  I use Quicken to keep track of what I’ll owe at the end of the month.  I reconcile my bill against quicken when I receive it in the mail and schedule payment online at the same time. 
Well, this month I must have told Quicken I paid my bill without actually going online and scheduling it (or I didn’t click the ‘authorize’ button).  I noticed my checking account was high from what Quicken said and looked into the matter. 
My credit card company said I hadn’t paid and it was too late [...]

When I was young and stupid, I became addicted to spending. I got my first credit card in college, and over the next fifteen years, I accumulated $35,000 in debt. I’m debt-free now, and have even begun building a nest egg, but I didn’t reach this place without making a lot of financial mistakes along the way. And I still make mistakes. Dealing with mistakes and setbacks is an important tool in your personal finance arsenal.
Preventing problems
The best defense is a good offense. I used to spend a lot of time reacting to problems: bounced checks, car repairs, soccer injuries, and — worst of all — my own dumb choices. I never could seem to get ahead.
Then I realized that the best way to defend against financial setbacks was to actually prepare for them before they arrived. Simple, I know, but it’s the simple stuff like this that forms the basis of smart personal finance. [...]