If you need money to fund a business, don't overlook saving your pennies. If you did, you'd be following in the footsteps of Warren Buffett, the famously thrifty "Oracle of Omaha" who turned a dresser drawer into a bassinet for one of his kids and drove a Volkswagen until his wife forced him to upgrade, according to a new biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. Forbes columnist Deborah Jacobs uses the Buffett book as inspiration for dozens of simple tips for frugal living. Among them: Buy food in bulk and freeze it, bring your own coffee and lunch to work, only buy clothes when they're on sale, and always pay cash. Find more tips in this SecondAct post, Cheap Chic: Frugal Living Tips for 2012.

'Nextnik' Series Debuts on YouTube: The six-part dramedy about a middle-management refugee faced with reinventing himself at midlife had its online debut this week. Mike Kravinsky created the semi-autobiographical web series after taking a buyout from ABC News, where he'd worked as a video editor and technical director for 29 years, contributor Pat Kiger explains in this SecondAct post.

Let's face it -- these are frugal times: As the holidays pass and the New Year begins, everyone's looking to pinch pennies.

Here are 10 ways to save money in 2012, all tips taken from SecondAct's best posts on frugal living.

1. 8 Tips for (Really) Frugal Living

If you're a pilot for Southwest Airlines and save through your company 401(k), congratulations. You've invested in the country's highest-rated retirement savings plan of 2011.

On Tuesday, BrightScope, the independent 401(k) rating service, released its annual list of the top retirement plans with assets of more than $1 billion. In addition to Southwest, companies in internet services, pharmaceutical manufacturing, management consulting, oil and gas production, and financial services topped the list.

It's crunch time. If you're still shopping, here are some helpful last-minute suggestions from SecondAct's 2011 holiday gift guides:

1. Smart Gifts for Techies. Once again, the iPad is dominating holiday lists, but unlike last year, there are some worthy, lower-cost alternatives, including the Kindle Fire. Other hot gadgets include the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, big-screen TVs and web-based music services such as Spotify.

The Ford F Series trucks are the overall bestselling new vehicles for middle-aged consumers in 2011, though fuel-efficient imports showed the biggest growth in sales this year.

That assessment comes from the number-crunching automotive industry analysts at Edmunds.com who compiled data for SecondAct.com on the hottest-selling 2011 vehicles for people ages 45 and over.

Someday you'll want to stop working so hard. Or you'll want to work differently. Or not at all. Your plan may be to scale back to a less-demanding job with more flexibility, more time for travel, hobbies, or pursuing that dream you never had time to make happen.

The SecondAct Retirement Savings Center is here to get you there.

We're excited to launch our new savings center, which greatly expands SecondAct's coverage of retirement planning in one easy-to-browse location.

With negotiations over raising the national debt ceiling reaching a fever pitch, Social Security became a bargaining chip this week.

U.S. News and World Report says that President Obama and members of Congress have begun looking at the annual cost-of-living increases built into Social Security and other tax and spending programs as a potential source of future savings. "Adjusting the consumer price index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to determine how much the cost of living goes up each year, could save hundreds of billions of dollars for the federal government," Alex Parker writes. "It is reportedly among the ideas being discussed during the closed-door debt-ceiling negotiations."

When Caitlin Kelly lost her job as a newspaper reporter and took a part-time retail position to help pay the bills, she didn't know she was a trendsetter.

Kelly started working at The North Face store in The Westchester, an upscale mall in the suburbs north of New York City in summer 2007, a year before the economy officially fell apart. By fall 2008, she saw other laid-off professionals -- the kind of people who once came into the high-end sporting goods store to buy expensive ski jackets and lightweight backpacks -- now asking about job applications.

The price of gas isn't the only thing that's been rising in recent months.

Putting dinner on the table costs more, too. The global Food Price Index compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has been rising for at least eight months and has reached a 21-year high. Shoppers are paying more for everything from corn flakes to coffee.

Barbara Tobias worked as a fashion model in Detroit in the 1970s and 80s, but the single mother didn't always make enough to support herself and a young son.

Out of necessity, she started frequenting garage sales for clothes and household items, using her fashion insider's eye to spot treasures in other people's cast-offs. She became a garage sale circuit regular and, in the process, developed a reputation as a thrift store diva.