Feeling creative? Well, Dollar Tree is having a contest that requires more than just filling out a form and answering a skill-testing question.

The folks at Dollar Tree want you to tell them why you love your Dollar Tree by putting it in writing, making an audio or video file or expressing it in a picture to win up to $1,250 in cash.

In my kitchen -

The four-sided metal cheese grater I own is one of the first items I ever bought in a dollar store and is at least four years old. The same day I bought it, I saw the exact same grater in a major department store for three times the price.

We're not out of the winter woods yet but spring is on the horizon and those of us who've had it up to our chins with cold and snow can't wait. Neither can dollar stores it seems. They've begun to stock everything from Easter baskets to gardening gloves.

99-Cent Only Stores are advertising the following gardening products for under a buck:

Pruning Shears

Gardening tools, including cultivators, trowels and forks

Jobe's plant food spikes, pkg. of 30

Ceramic planters

Garden tool organizer

Valentine's Day is coming up this weekend and I think some of the gift ideas at the dollar stores are worth looking into. To me, love isn't about how much money you spend. If you've got the money, fine, buy a dozen, long-stemmed roses, have dinner in a fancy restaurant, or both. For the rest of us, a buck or two is all it will take to show we appreciate our partners.

Well, I asked for your opinions about the clothing found at dollar stores and, once again, you responded with enthusiasm and honesty.

Impressions tended to be varied from one reader to the next, even getting into a debate over what constitutes a dollar store. It seems some of you don't consider Family Dollar or Dollar General to be "dollar stores" in the strictest sense of the word and that was my first impression. However, the majority of my readers seem to lump these discount stores in with dollar stores and I'm not here to pick nits, so I include them. After all, a bargain is a bargain, wherever you find it.

Whatever the topic, there will always be conflicting opinions and experiences. Such was the case with the issue of clothes in dollar stores. One reader said the clothes at her dollar store looked stiff and only came in extra large sizes, while another gentleman complained that he needed those sizes but the ones marked x-large seemed smaller at Family Dollar than at other retail stores.

I asked for reader feedback about things you've bought at a dollar store but wouldn't buy again, and you let me have it! What surprised me was that most of the comments were about positive shopping experiences. Everyone loves the paper products, greeting cards, wrapping paper and the like, and I heard again how awesome the cleaner Awesome really is.

Several of you rapped my knuckles for placing plates of hot food directly onto a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth. Ouch! In my defense, this was not the first vinyl tablecloth I've ever owned and I have never had the color fade and flake off of one the way it did on my dollar store find.

Not every purchase we make is entirely satisfying. Recently, I had to return a winter jacket to Sears after only two months of wear because a couple of the seams had started to fray. But dollar stores seem particularly susceptible open to criticism that "everything" they sell is junk. Personally, I can't agree with that, but I do admit that there are some things that dollar stores shouldn't try to sell for a buck or two.

An informed shopper is a smart shopper. So, if something in the dollar store looks too good to be true, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. How can you tell? Here are some tips that will help you to decide.

The craft stores are bustling at this time of year but you don't necessarily have to visit one in order to make unique Christmas ornaments and decorations for your home.

Here are five Christmas crafts that were made using materials from the dollar store and cost less than $5 to make.

Coaster ornament. All you need to make this ornament is a pair of 5-inch cloth embroidered coasters, a small amount of batting, a length of wide ribbon and a ready-made tie on bow. The coasters cost $1 for the set of two. Put the coasters together with the patterns facing out and stitch around the gold trim near the edges, leaving a small opening in the top to add the batting and ribbon hanger. Then stitch the opening closed and attach the bow near the base of the hanger. Total cost: less than $3.

Feeling the pinch as you scan your holiday gift-giving list? You should be heading for a dollar store to get great gifts that you can dress up as fancy gifts. How much can you save? We put ourselves to the test to see what we could get for the people on our list.

(Plaid dress in this video provided by Anastasia Chatzka. Special thanks to Nolcha.com)

My mom lived out the last few years of her life in a nursing home. The question, "What can we give Grandma?" was one I would hear every year about this time.

I knew that Mom loved chocolate, playing Bingo and word find puzzles. A rare debilitating disease had robbed her of her fine motor skills and her speech. So much for Bingo and puzzles. With each passing month, it became more and more difficult for her to swallow. So much for giving a box of chocolates.

Even without physical limitations, it can be a real chore figuring out what to get our elderly relatives. In my mom's case, I could buy her a new nightie and she loved getting new tops (clothes tend to get lost in a nursing home.) Another good choice seemed to be body wash that the staff would use for her shower and body lotions as the air is often dry during the winter months.