Rick, I've been going through the suspension noise battle for the past four months now. Not sure if it's one we can win.
The only really loud creaking I ever had was the rear sway bar bushings. The rears are a piece of cake, so if you haven't gobbed some white lithium on them recently, it's worth a shot.
The front right was definitely making a racquet back in November, some creaking, but it sounded like it was slapping the pavement over small cracks. There was some oil leaking out of the front right strut so I decided to replace them all. Because of the retardedly expensive rear OEM struts, I decided to go with the HPK, which I figured would be almost identical in performance. Big mistake.
They were fine for a couple months, but the messed up sway bar and end link geometry from the 1.5" drop caused my relatively new bushings to wear out prematurely and my front sway bar to rattle around. Of course, since I had just replaced them less than a year ago, I mistakenly ruled them out, and tried fixing other things.
The next thing I replaced was the front control arm bushings. They were definitely worn out, and do creak a bit since the rear bushing is just rubber being squashed between the control arm and the sub frame. That solved the creaking I had, but did nothing for the thud/rattle. These bushings could very well be your creak. You can actually test this one by getting under the car and having someone jack the wheels or rotors up and down, just make sure it is well supported on jack stands first, and don't raise wheel too high and lift the car off the stands.
I also replaced the right front wheel bearing, which even though it was completely shot, didn't solve any noises. As a last resort, I decided to pull off the end links and the noise was gone. Handling sucked but it was quiet.
So I replaced my front sway bar bushings again and am now on a quest to find/create quiet longer end links, which has so far been very expensive and unsuccessful. All the ball joints I've tried are noisy as hell. The thud/rattle is gone, but the joints I put together click and clack like an Underarmor commercial.
You can be pretty sure that if you hear creaking it is something rubber, which means a bushing. Sway bar bushings are first, then control arm, then trailing arm or lateral links, but I haven't heard anyone complain about them. Unless you see oil running down the side of your strut, I wouldn't mess with them. The springs aren't going to really go bad ever. They can rust through in salty areas, but that will take a lot of time and miles.
Well, good luck. If I ever get mine to be completely quiet again, I'll probably cry tears of joy.