After three months at home with baby #3, a dreamy boy who eats well, puts himself to sleep and rarely cries, I am back in the saddle at the Strib. I’ll tell you about money and my maternity leave in Sunday’s paper.

Thanks to all of you who headed over to www.twitter.com/kablog to follow me. I’m still tweeting everything I spend with the exception of my regular fixed expenses. How many times does someone want to read:Mortgage $977 or Student loan $96.65?But if you want me to continue tweeting those expenses, let me know and I will.

While gone, I missed having the blog, especially when the urge struck to write something complicated, like the  explainer  on student loan changes from today’s paper.  Can’t do that in 140 characters!

In the weeks to come, I’ll write about car-shopping, credit card changes, savings and debt payoff.

But being a little sleep-deprived and new to juggling three, I’m hoping you’ll make my job easier.

What are the personal finance issues your family is facing? Any money matters or financial trends you’re seeing or reading about that drive you nuts? Questions about investing that you don’t want to pay an adviser to answer?  Know any inspiring folks who got out of debt? Live next to the most frugal family known to man?  Hankering to be a guest blogger for Ka-Blog?

I hope so!. Email kara.mcguire@startribune.com or comment on this blog post. Some of my best ideas come from nuggets delivered by readers like you.

It’s good to be back.

I’m about to add another tax credit to my family. That’s right, baby #3 was due yesterday. I never miss a deadline when it comes to stories, tax day, or bill payments (OK, every once in a while I’ve goofed up this last one). But with babies, no such luck.

While I’m on maternity leave, Ka-Blog! won’t be updated. However, there’s no way I’ll be able to turn off my deal-watching, penny-pinching, money-musing nature. So keep in touch with me via Twitter, where I’ve been tracking every penny I spend and making money observations since Jan. 1.

Why Twitter? I figure 140 characters is about all a mom with a newborn can handle!

If you’re new to Twitter, head to www.twitter.com to sign up. You can find me at www.twitter.com/kablog. Hit “follow” to receive my tweets. Then read and reply often.

Say you’re shorter on cash than you think and are paying for a latte and a donut with your debit card. Would you prefer the transaction to go through even if you don’t have enough cash in your account, digesting a hefty overdraft fee along with your breakfast? Or would you rather the transaction be declined?

I definitely fall into the latter category. I will skip a donut to save $35.

But currently, consumers aren’t given that choice. Banks just let the transaction go through and laugh all the way to the, er, bank.

The Federal Reserve is currently looking at whether this should change. Should banks give consumers the chance to opt-in to pricey overdraft programs. Or should they have the right to opt-out?

Opting-in is preferable to opting-out because inertia will have more people sticking with the protection by default, even if they can’t afford to.

Have an opinion? You have until March 30th to share it with regulators.

Shoot an email with the subject R-1343 to: comments@federalreserve.gov. Or use this form created by Consumers Union.

I chuckled when I saw the following list of off-the-wall tax deduction attempts, courtesy of bankrate.com. Love #8! #3? Really?!

And I thought I was bad for even pondering the deduction of makeup and Kara playing TV personality outfits for the Dollar Duo! I didn’t take the leap, which you might be able to tell based on my outfits and non-TV hair.

Add your own stretching the tax law deductions below (don’t worry, you can do it anonymously).

1) Arizona small business owner seeks deduction for toilet paper bought from his home
2) Wife donates cheating husband’s belongings to Goodwill, seeks $51,000 charitable deduction
3) Oklahoma business owner files a $2,000 check to a gynecologist as “repairs and maintenance”
4) Cleveland woman attempts to not only deduct Jacuzzi for medical reasons, but also attempts to deduct mood lighting, underwater speakers and a in-tub stereo system
5) Texas woman digs up the older trees in her backyard and donates them to charity. The IRS allowed this deduction
6) A Texas couple who’s unmarried but living together decides to file as a married couple, resulting in a messy situation
7) 85 year-old woman gets a deduction for ballroom dance lessons one year, only to attempt to deduct more dance lessons, a ball gown, and cruises with her 20 year-old dancing instructor the next year
Pet lover attempts to write off dog food as an expense for his “home security system”
9) Woman claims subletter renting a room in her house as a new “nephew” despite him being over 20 and not related to her

I’m definitely an ant with a newly diagnosed affliction: hyperopia. I’m an oversaver “so obsessed with preparing for the future that they can’t enjoy the present, and they end up looking back sadly on all their lost opportunities for fun.” 

Read the rest of this  NYT story here.

Perhaps this is why my gut reaction when invited to two out of town weddings in the next year was “no way we can afford to go” instead of “these will be two meaningful events and we can’t miss ‘em.”