I started buying gifts throughout the year at sales and even garage sales. I've already got the majority of my Christmas shopping for 2013 finished. The items are hid away in the closet, picked up at sales as I see them throughout the year. So, I just need to wrap them.

I was very happy with the money I received for my old phones and I was shocked!  If you are in need of extra cash fast and have some old cellphones lying around, put them up for sale. 

Here's how to keep your stuff safe while traveling:

We call it "junking" and you can make as much or as little as you want.  All you need to get started junking is a good eye for items that can be repurposed or brought back to their former life and then sold for a profit. 

The term International Schools is a catch-all for schools abroad that teach a curriculum different to what is offered locally (and in a different language, such as English), often to children of expats or employees of foreign embassies. Sometimes they're called American Schools, British Schools, or even DoD (Department of Defense) schools.

There's at least one piece of junk mail in my mailbox every day. There are repeat offenders such as credit card offers, which I get extreme pleasure out of putting them immediately through the shredder, the realtor that we used to buy our home, and even ads from grocery stores. 

As with any medicine, these homemade remedies may not taste good but they will give excellent relief for colds, coughs, sore throat and congestion. 

I dropped to my knees and rested my head on her stomach. I put her hand in mine and looked into her wet brown eyes. I told her that I understood why she would think that given the financial lessons I have been trying to teach her.  It was not OK to miss dance class because she'd rather stay home and play a computer game, or hang out with her friends. That would be wasting money.

With mortgage life insurance, if you (the mortgage payor) die, your mortgage is paid off in full. For this privilege, you pay a monthly premium along with your mortgage payment. If you decline mortgage life insurance when applying for your mortgage, you often need to sign waiver forms declining it, which might make you think twice about your decision. This is to protect the bank, since they want to do everything they can to ensure the money they lend you is going be paid back.

She was right; I had not collected their payment since the end of the school year in the spring. My wife and I been in the habit of looking at and reconciling our checking account each morning.

The year I did that I felt so guilty and I missed out on so much fun talking with the tricksters. I didn't put out my famous "glowing and making creepy sounds" pumpkin so I couldn't chuckle when the littler kids (and some of the big ones too) screamed and hugged their mom or dad's leg for protection. That Halloween was nothing but a bummer! 

It was an activity that was supposed to save us time, but it almost ended up costing us money. With cooler weather and colorful trees it's quite evident that its fall, which means it's also time to get our yearly influenza vaccine. 

Over the course of a week, I sent a total of two emails and made four phone calls. None of which extracted a response from the company. 

I have read many articles where financial advisors are saying that to live out your  retirement years and not run out of money you need to sock away a couple of million dollars prior to retirement. WOW! I don't think I made a couple of million dollars in my entire working life. 

I was honestly surprised at what I was hearing. My memory of 7th grade was a time when who you hung out with and what you wore became extremely important to your social status. Having a plain organizer is the sort of thing that a bully could easily latch on to. But here was my daughter more concerned with being able to properly organize her school work than impressing her class mates.

Here are six unexciting but necessary living expenses, with some techniques to minimize them.

Occasionally, my wife would come visit me next to my grill, look at my broken down charcoal starter and tell me I should get a new one. I would just shake my head, refusing to shell out $15 for a new one. I didn't care how ugly my chimney was, or how nonfunctional it appeared.

I shared the questions with my husband and he stopped cold in this tracks. What were we thinking? We were very nearly on the verge of blowing our budget big time with absolutely no regrets - just thoughts of fun, fun, fun! We decided to sleep on this and see how we felt tomorrow. 

Here are three ways I use my smart phone to keep me on budget, and get the most for my money.

My daughter had used the time to search the internet and had managed to match our cat's symptoms to a serious feline disease. When my wife and I got home, our daughter was very upset which resulted in my wife also becoming quite upset about the state of our cat. A few phone calls later, we were off to the vet.

We were planning to throw some Mahi Mahi and asparagus on grill, and had more than enough to share with our friends. They responded via text and said they already had a tri tip roast on the grill, and were making mashed red potatoes as a side. We suggested combining dinners at our house.

One of our favorite things to do is get dressed up and have dinner at a nice restaurant. We are able to do this just as we have done everything since retirement - by looking at things differently and thinking out of the box. 

I showed Vonnie, and we both shook our heads. We both knew that in years past, we would have been forced to overpay, and buy the $60 backpack because we were in one of the stores for which we had a store credit card.

We don't feel we are doing without or that we are not enjoying life. Instead, choosing what is really important and saving our money for it has become an imaginative, fun challenge. We aren't living the life we had before retirement; we are enjoying a totally new way of thinking and living. 

Before committing to one or the other, I did a little price comparison to see which would be the better choice.