Thirfty but still great birthday parties for kids

[3girlsallnaughty]

Ik its not really a party thing but I thought about an indoor camping theme with an indoor grill for smores and a tent amd a battery operated moon lol with our twilight turtles......maybe flashlights and "fishing" in a pool?? Idk lol...or I thought of doing a vampire theme since my girls like twilight lol

[pgkcb13]

I've been using pinterest for ideas... Usually we don't mind spending a bit for birthdays, but with this being our 'no spend' year we're thinking outside the box a bit. ODD's birthday is in March and she wants a pirate theme. So far I have:

*hats from felt we have (I happen to have a giant piece of black felt left over from another projects, but even if I didn't it's cheap! The hats are super cute and easy to make)
*Swords from cardboard (just cutting sword shapes out of 'found' card board and painting them with craft paint we already have)
*walk the plank game with wood we have (again, we have some scrap wood we can use, but you can always check the free section of craigslist!)
*X marks the spot party sign from cardboard (cutting a big 'X' and painting it to hang out front)
*Dig for buried (goodwill) treasure?? (contemplating buying a couple of the kid's jewelry bags for $1.79 and letting the kids dig in a tub of dirt for them... not sure though)
*Pirate flag ($5 on amazon)
*Pirate map craft (brown paper bags and markers)
*Stick on mustaches (were like $2 incl shipping on amazon)
*Cork decoration (mom found a big bag at the thrift store for $2)
*Pirate bunting (free printable, we laminated it and put it on twine we had)

food ideas
*'grogg' in ball jar mugs (if I can find enough... can get them for .25ea at goodwill)
*paper sails on cupcakes (printable)
*non dairy chocolate coins? (10.99 for HUGE pack on amazon)

I think once you have a theme it can be a fun challenge to figure out how to pull it off for little to no money! Don't forget you can borrow things! I borrowed a bubble machine for YDD's party last year instead of buying one, etc.