'Tis the season for shopping -- and often, overspending. This year, with the economy still sputtering, staying within budget is important for many people. One-third of consumers plan to spend less money on gifts than they did during last year's holiday season, according to Consumer Reports.

While the sales may be tempting, have a strategy in place before you dive in. With plenty of tools to keep you on track, your smartphone is a good place to start. Here are five apps to help you save money this season.

Intel this week announced it would offer paid internships to its retirement-eligible U.S. employees to pursue encore careers in the nonprofit world -- making it one of the first companies to make such a program so widely available.

The Silicon Valley chipmaker said it will offer $25,000 stipends and health insurance coverage as part of the fellowship program.

Macy's, Toys"R"s and Target will employ thousands of temporary workers between now and the end of the year. But retailers aren't the only ones hiring this holiday season.

If you need the cash and don't mind working while others make merry, there are jobs to be had, and plenty of time to find them. According to a recent seasonal hiring report from job board CareerBuilder, 33 percent of companies that bring on seasonal workers still recruit this month, and 11 percent will continue to do so in December.

As the holiday season arrives, SecondAct asked some people we've written about what they're grateful for this Thanksgiving and at this time in their lives.

Here's what they shared:

1. Jeff Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches.
"I'm thankful I'm still around. Good health means a lot. When I give really young people advice, it's, 'Take care of your health as best as you can.'The important stuff in your life doesn't involve money and shopping and price tags... Some things are more important than stuff. It sounds kind of obvious, but it's true. The older you get, the less any of this matters. Live in the moment. I value experience more than stuff."

After 17 years running a successful travel and event management company in Cherry Hill, N.J., Linda Davis did what many entrepreneurs dream about: She retired to Naples, Fla. "I thought I would be happy relaxing on the beach and reading," she says. "That lasted about three months."

Davis, 59, says she missed learning new things and meeting new people. "I felt like I needed to do something more with my life," she says.

I consider myself an adventurous cook. I love discovering fun new recipes, spicing up old ones and bringing a touch of spontaneity to the table. Even on tradition-heavy holidays, I feel compelled to add some unexpected and exciting twists on classic dishes.

Yet there's always one constant on my family's Thanksgiving table for as long as I can remember: our take on sweet potato casserole. If I ever so much as tweaked this generations-old recipe, I'm afraid my family would rip the oven mitts from my hands in revolt.

We were all diverted from Occupy Wall Street protests, the Penn State sex abuse scandal, verbal miscues by various presidential hopefuls and other tumultuous events this week by even more shocking news: Brad Pitt, the 47-year-old preternaturally youthful-looking leading man of Moneyball and scores of other films, expects to be through as a movie star by the time he's 50.

Pitt told an Australian TV program that he envisions giving up acting in three years and transitioning into becoming a movie producer. While Pitt is best known for appearing in 65 films, he's also had an off-camera producing role on 20 films, including some in which he didn't appear. "I am really enjoying the producing side and development of stories and putting those pieces together," he explains. "And getting stories to the plate that might have had a tougher time otherwise." Here's a transcript and video of the interview.

My back ached, my feet hurt, and the kitchen was a disaster. But after hours of peeling, coring, mixing and pouring, the jars of caramel-colored apple pie filling emerging from the boiling depths of the canner made it all worthwhile.

I taught myself how to can nearly 10 years ago and have been teaching other people the throw-back art of "putting up" for the past few years. Now it doesn't feel like fall until I've teamed up with friends or family members to put something we've canned into the pantry. During last weekend's canning marathon, my sister, brother-in-law, two nieces and I transformed 60 pounds of apples into three dozen quarts of apple pie filing and applesauce.

Traveling over the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays? If you haven't been in an airport recently, you'll notice that things are a little different this holiday season.

Here are five changes you can count on as you head out of town for the holidays.

It looked like a Hollywood disaster of The Poseidon Adventure proportions when Eddie Murphy backed out of hosting the 2012 Academy Awards, but then came word that his replacement will be veteran Oscars host Billy Crystal.

The 61-year-old Crystal's return engagement promises a contrast to the 2011 telecast, in which Gen Y movie stars James Franco and Anne Hathaway were a little too self-consciously hip and not quite funny enough, according to the critical consensus. As Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich opines: "It's almost as if the show has been going through a midlife crisis -- buying a shiny new car, dating people young enough to be its grandchildren -- and now it's admitting that, well, sometimes the safe choice is the best choice."