Yes, MVC3 the way forward. I've spent the last year pulling together my minimum viable product with MVC and choosing ASP MVC 3 has to be the best decision I've made.
My only negative comment about ASP MVC is that WebForms requires very little code to create a sexy interactive expanding/collapsing databound table whereas you seem to have to write a lot of code to do the equivalent in ASP MVC (v3 at least...) There are however some great libraries out there like jQuery MVC Grid (http://jqmvcgrid.codeplex.com/) which fill in these gaps. With the current speed of development, it is surely only a matter of time before WebForms becomes obsolete.
I'm a big fan of electronic music and used to DJ, so all kinds of electronica, dubstep, garage/2-step, a bit of house/electro/tech house, drum & bass, and recently a lot of techno. Pretty much anything fast with a steady beat.
I find techno to be good music for coding to because it is very subtle and has long build ups whilst maintaining a decent pace. I'm still new to techno but I'd recommend both the CLR.net and Drumcode.se podcasts, but get yourself a decent pair of headphones :)
Dubstep can be fantastic for coding but I prefer the darker more underground tunes as opposed to Skrillex and the poppy sound which gets played a lot recently. Keep an eye out for tunes by Mala, Kode9, SP:MC, Distance, Lynx, Skream, Loefah. I listen to Youngsta's shows on Rinse.FM which you can download from their site on Tuesday mornings GMT.
Also some downtempo/chilled stuff is good for more relaxed coding. I've enjoyed Emancipator's albums over the last couple of months and would recommend them to pretty much anyone.
I'm constantly telling off my friend (an established programmer, just not with C#) for using Resharper with VS2010. He responds with "But it helps! It's easier to use!", then asks me "What's the difference between a reference and a 'using' statement?".
I don't have all that much money to play with at this point, so really I'm looking for something cheap
Interestingly, I write software for Sage Line 50 as part of my day job, and can get bleeding edge developer editions, unlimited license keys etc. It is a bit overboard for what I want to do though - and FreeAgentCentral suggested above seems to do all of the accounting stuff, plus some smart project/time management features which IMO make it worth £15/month - although in the fullness of time this will no doubt be the more expensive option.
Great suggestion though, I hadn't actually thought of that! (Couldn't see the wood for the trees I suppose :)
Hehe, HN n00b here too - I started coming here when Reddit was clogged with derp derp Apple derp Narwahls, although I still monitor both fairly closely during the course of the day.