It's that time of year again. And you want to thank all the "little" people in your life. But there are so many of them! If you bought a "little" something for each of them, you'd end up spending a fortune.

Just think about it -- your kids' teachers, the mail carrier, friends at the office -- the list is endless. Even a simple candy basket from Costco or gizmos from the discount shelves at Wal-Mart will run you more than $10 a pop. To buy something halfway decent, you could end up tacking on $100 or more to your holiday shopping bill.

Fear not! You can create holiday gifts yourself that would sell for much more at regular stores. Just start at your friendly neighborhood dollar store.

Here are ten gift suggestions that cost about $5 each, including the containers they're in. Don't see anything you like? Use these ideas as examples of the kinds of things that can be done using only things from the dollar store. It's fun and you can personalize each gift for the intended recipient.

A Great Gift for a Co-Worker

The ever-popular bath products gift is one of the easiest to do. You can start with a clear wire and plastic container (as pictured here) or use a small basket or gift bag. This gift basket contains an exfoliating bath sponge, body wash, a scented soap-shaped candle and a pumice scrubber.

Don't know what to get a favorite aunt or the grandma who doesn't need anything? This idea might work for them, as well as for a female co-worker. Add some basket wrap and you're good to go.

Most families are gearing up for Halloween and dollar stores are great places to shop for masks and other accessories like plastic pirate swords and eye patches. 99 cent Only Stores have different varieties of Tootsie Roll or Charms blow pops candy for 99. cents each to help fill treat bags.

On the everyday side, buy an 11.5 oz. size Welch's juice drink for 99. cents or Dole bag salads in 12oz. or 1 lb. sizes, depending on the type of salad you chose. 99 Cent Only Stores are also featuring dinnerware in a brown swirl pattern for 99. cents for each plate, bowl or mug.

Dollar Tree is selling Soft Soap hand soap in a 7 1/2 oz. pump bottle , Silkience Shampoo, Campbell's 16oz. soups, Duncan Hines Baking mixes for either brownies or cookies and Scotties tissues for $1 each. Along with the customary costumes and candy, you can also dress your small pooch or kitty for Halloween if, that is, they're the type who'll sit still for it!

The big news at Dollar General is its million dollar sweepstakes. When you buy qualifying products at Dollar General, you simply log in at and enter the Dollar General receipt code. There's also a no-purchase-necessary free entry or free mail-in entry, available on request at any Dollar General. There are other prizes to be won, including 26"TVs, $50 Dollar General Gift Cards, two $10,000 cash prizes and three carat diamond tennis bracelets. Get all of the details here. Evidently, you can enter as many as 200 times.

Marlene Alexander is a freelance writer and dollar store diva. She writes tips for decorating using only items from the dollar store.

All God's children gotta eat, so I headed back to my local dollar store in search of more good food deals to compare with an area supermarket's prices. Please check prices in your neighborhood. I've never caught my dollar store selling stale cookies or otherwise out-of-date food, but always check expiry dates anyway before heading to the cash register.

1. A regular sized bag of Dare Maple Leaf cookies sells for $2.99 at the grocery store. Instead, try Manning Cookie Shop maple leaf creme cookies. The 11-.oz package is only a buck at the dollar store, saving you $1.99 at the check-out.

2. The grocery store sells Added Touch cake or brownie mixes for $1.59. Save 59 cents by buying Loretta Rich 'n Moist Cake or Fudge Brownie mixes for $1. Save 59 cents on each 18.48 oz. box.

Now, before you handyman types get all up in arms, I'm not suggesting that dollar store tools are going to meet everyone's standards. All I'm saying is that you can get some well made tools for a buck. Every home needs some tool basics, whether you're measuring a window for curtains or hanging pictures on the living room wall. My experience with dollar store tools has been favorable, the fundamental criteria being that any implement I buy must be solidly built. It may not be scientific, but I have rarely been disappointed with a purchase. Here are a few of the tools available and how prices compare for similar items at Home Depot. Please check prices at your local store.

1. 10" claw hammer. The $1 hammer is all metal with a rubber hand grip. The only 10" hammer I could find at Home Deport had a wooden handle and cost $3.98.

2. 16' measuring tape with a blade lock, quick rewind and a rubberized casing. Cost, $1. A similar 16" measuring tape at Home Depot cost $3.98.

3. 9 1/2" screw drivers. The $1 screw drivers have hard plastic handles with rubber grips. The hardware store sells similar screw drivers for $6.96 each.

4. Needle nose pliers. The dollar store has two or three different sizes of these for $1 each and they all have plastic-coated or rubberized handles. The Home Depot's pliers cost $6.99 for the 6 1/2" size.

5. Crescent wrench. Okay, maybe the Home Depot wrench has a bit more metal in it but $23.74 for a small wrench? For all I use a crescent wrench, I'll stick with my $1 ones.

Saving money on groceries is high on everyone's list. Places like the 99-cent Only Stores make it easy by stocking a wide variety of food items, including fresh produce. For example, a recent flyer from there advertised 2 lbs. of beef steak tomatoes for 99 cents, as well as cantaloupe or honeydew melons for 99 cents each.

My neighborhood dollar store, Dollarama, devotes two aisles to food items, which isn't a lot but I still found 10 brand name items that cost less there than buying them at a major grocery store in my area. You'll need to compare prices in your locality, but here are a few of the things I found:

The grocery store chain sells Jello brand instant puddings for $1.19 a package. The dollar store has Neilson instant pudding mix, 2 packages for $1, a savings of $1.38 on two packages.

Family Dollar is featuring Disney backpacks or lunch bags at $6 each. It is also featuring four-pack Kraft Handi-Snacks or four-pack Kool-aid Gels for $1 each to help fill those lunch boxes. Along with Disney and other character school supplies, the 99-cent Only Store has lunch box treats like Florida's Natural Fruit Sticks in a six-pack for 99 cents or seven mini snack boxes of Sunmaid raisins for 99 cents. Dollar Tree also has lunch box snacks like potato chips, juice boxes and fruit roll-ups in multi-packs for $1.

Dollar General is offering licensed lunch boxes in assorted styles for $5 each and backpacks in assorted styles for $8 each. I can't tell from the picture, but these backpacks look to be made of nylon material and look to have some outside pockets, whereas the Disney ones at Family Dollar look like they're some I've seen that are made of soft vinyl. If it were me, I'd go for the sturdier material.

Socks is one item of clothing that you can save a lot of money on by shopping at a dollar store. Dollar Tree is featuring kids and adult sizes in solids and patterns for $1 a pair and the 99-cent Only Store has sport socks for 99 cents a pair. I've bought socks from my local dollar store and they've stood the test of time and many washings. And Dollarama has some really cute kids socks.

Marlene Alexander is a freelance writer and dollar store diva. She writes about budget decorating using only items from the dollar store.

Back to school can be a real pain in the wallet for parents. I know. And when my kids were school-age I didn't have a dollar store to go to for cheap school supplies. However, in order to save money, it's still a question of careful shopping, as I discovered on a recent trip to my local Staples to compare prices on the basics. Here's a sampling what I found. (Please check prices in your area.)

• Binder exercise books. Staples has 200-page exercise books for $1.96 each compared to the dollar store's 140-page notebook for $1. That means you're paying .96 cents more for an extra 60 pages at Staples and probably a better quality paper as well. You decide.

• 1" binders. Staples has Hilroy binders for .88 cents each. You can't beat that at the dollar store.

• Index dividers. Staples sells Avery plastic dividers with write-on tab for $3.28 per package. If you don't need fancy, try a package of 10 index dividers for $1.

You can spend a lot of money keeping the bathroom stocked with essentials. But if you don't need to have a name brand, you just may find that the personal care aisle at the dollar store has many quality products that will do the job just as well. Again, please check prices in your area.

1. Band-Aids. For years I tried different store brands in an effort to save money. The individual strips were hard to open and the plastic was of such a poor quality that it would tear. I had all but given up when I discovered Medi-Care at my local dollar store. They are sterile, open easily and stay put. My store has them in packages of 60 regular or clear, five large size and children's cartoon designs. Johnston and Johnston bandages cost $3.27 for a package of 40 or a package of 10 large. The larger, patch type band-aids are 20 cents each at the dollar store. The brand-name ones, at the price I saw, would be about 33 cents each. The off-brands won't "cling in soapy suds" but under normal circumstances, they do the job very nicely, thank-you.

2. Purell hand sanitizer cost $4.87 for 237 ml bottle with a pump. The dollar store brand comes in a 236 ml. pump bottle for $3.87 less.

All good things must come to an end.

The 99-Cent Only Store, a Los Angeles-based chain whose logo for years has been "Nothing over 99-cents. Ever" is doing just that. The chain is raising prices on some items. There will be some things that will now indeed cost more than 99 cents. I guess this means it's official: Inflation is alive and well.

With rising costs, including a higher minimum wage, and a dragging economy, the chain reported that it lost about $1.5 million in the last quarter. To counter these losses, prices will have to rise on some items. Jeff Gold, the chain's president, hasn't said exactly which items he will hike the price on, but I'm going to take a stab and guess it's going to be the stuff that is a little less junky than normal. That and perhaps food prices. Hard to find a decent gallon of milk for under $2.50 these days. Especially in Los Angeles.



Critics are saying the chain will lose certain "purist" customers who will take umbrage that an item is being sold for, say $1.05 instead of 99 cents. I'm not so sure. Is another 10 or so cents tacked onto an item really going to make or break a sale? A few dollars more on your basket of items? You're still getting your stuff cheaper than anywhere else. Look under your couch and make up the difference.

The 99-Cent-Only Store isn't the only dirt-bottom cheap store to reneg on the dirt-bottom pricing pitch. Similar stores in New York are feeling the bottom-line pinch as well, and are raising their prices accordingly.

Bargain shoppers, start your engines. Check out our resident dollar-store expert Marlene Alexander for tips on what (or what not) to buy, and git while the gittin's good. Or at least while the company website says "STILL nothing over 99 cents...ever!"

Prices are rising fast on everything, but you can still get a lot of stuff for $1, from fast food to greeting cards to shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. We've found deals on just about everything, including shoes, in local stores, national chains and on the Internet, and all without setting foot in a dollar store.

• Fast Food: You better run fast to get the last $1 deals on McDonald's menu:The company is floating raising the price to $1.29 to off-set higher costs. But you can still find 99-cent items at most other fast-food chains, like Burger King, Wendy's, KFC and Taco Bell, which even has items as low as 49 cents.

• Kids Meals: Remember when kids used to eat free at many restaurants? And then there used to be plenty of places where they could eat for 99 cents? Not so much anymore. Even kids meals at fast-food restaurants are much more expensive these days (and loaded with calories, says a new study). But there are still some 99-cent deals around, like IKEA's 99-cent mac n' cheese, which also comes with a drink. Some chains also have seasonal deals, such as Denny's offering free kids meals, and local restaurants in your area may still have this throw-back price.

• Amazon.com: You're filling your shopping cart and need just a few more pennies worth of stuff to qualify for free shipping. What do you usually do? Amazon has long counted on people adding another item and spending much more than the $25 minimum. But there's another way to do with a web tool at Slickdeals.com. The tool lists over 1,000 items that you can choose from to add just a few dollars or cents to your order. Not all the items are very exciting – need a door knob or wooden dowel? – but you should be able to find something you need if you really want that free shipping.

When you think of electronics, you don't normally think of the dollar store but I found five cool gadgets that impressed me, considering that each one was only a buck. Well, maybe I'm easy to impress. See what you think.

• Hand-held game system with eight different games. The games have blocky black and white graphics but it would serve to entertain a kid in the backseat of the car on a long trip and it's better than shelling out up to $130 for a Nintendo DS or $170 for a PSP.

• Folding travel clock/calculator with 16 different time zones. Okay, so our cell phones do everything but serve lunch but this is still a neat little gadget for a buck. It makes a great desk accessory.

While researching the worst dollar store buys, it didn't surprise me to find that there were many more items that even Wal-mart and Costco couldn't compete with for price. And, as some readers pointed out, sometimes you don't have either the budget or the storage space for bulk buys. Anyway, here are a few of my picks for top dollar store buys and remember, I can only report on prices that I find in my neck of the woods, so please check prices in your area.

• Ivory hand soap At three bars for a buck, even the big box stores couldn't compete with 33 cents a bar. Our local Wal-mart sells Ivory bar soap in packages of 16 for $5.98, or 37 cents per bar.

• Tame Shampoo A similar brand, in the same size costs almost twice as much at Wal-mart. If you don't need or want a fancy shampoo, $1 is plenty to pay.

A word of caution when buying toothpaste at the dollar store: Don't buy unknown brands and be careful of boxes that look like name brands but actually aren't. Toothpaste was one of the household items to get caught up in the tainted products from China scare of the past several years. Toothpaste containing diethylene glycol, a sweet, syrupy poison used to make antifreeze, was found in several dollar stores.

Foam cups
Stocking your office? Having a brunch party? You'll need some foam cups, of course. Many people shop for party supplies at dollar stores because you can get all of your paper supplies in one place and usually in quantities that you can deal with for a small gathering. For this purpose, you might want just 50 plates, rather than 350, and if you're going to pay a premium for a small quantity, you think you're better off at the dollar store.

But if you stock up, you can save. At the dollar store, you can get a package of 45 - 7 oz. foam cups at the dollar store for $1 or .022 per cup or shop at Costco where you can go big and go home with 1,000 foam cups for $12.18 or .012 per cup.