The Festival of Frugality #118, which is hosted by My Dollar Plan, has an ABC theme. Click over to the showcase for more than 57 articles from bloggers across the Internet who are writing on frugal lifestyle topics.

Here are Monroe on a Budget’s picks of the week:

• Wise Bread presents Cutting the Grocery Bill: Reducing the Cost of a Good Spice Rack: “I got the idea to go one step further from drying my own herbs to growing my own.” (And there’s pictures from an apartment patio! My back yard isn’t much bigger than that.)
  
• Cheap Healthy Good presents Free Cooking Lessons Part II: “… most of us get some form of basic cable or cable TV. This means that morning, noon, and night, we’re exposed to some of the best chefs and cooks on Earth.” (This is a really awesome critique of TV shows about food.)
• The Wisdom Journal presents 5 Ways I Plan To Survive the Recession: “Surviving the recession isn’t what I really want to do. I want to thrive. When it comes to and end, I want to be in a position to snatch up deals and steadily increase my family’s wealth. But first, I have to survive the recession that the media seems to be clamoring for.” (Yes, he’s writing for a national audience. In southeast Michigan, the financial pain of recession is already very real. But his tips translate very well to here and now.)
• The Frugal Duchess presents Ask for Camp Scholarhips! Money is Out There: “I’ve had directors at expensive, private day camps, inform me that registration fees and tuition costs can be waived for families that need help. But that information is sometimes whispered or delivered in very hushed tones.” (Yes, my daughter did apply for and receive grants from Girl Scouts to pay for part of her summer program expenses. I felt awkward filling out the paperwork, but my husband’s income was unpredictable for a couple of years and my daughter’s main activity was Girl Scouts rather than sports or performing arts.)