Thrifty Pirate Party

For my sons birthday this year we decided to have a pirate theme. He is just slightly obssessed with pirates at the moment thanks to Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

 As always I hate spending money so I needed to come up with some money saving ideas, as parties can be pretty expensive events these days. Once you've paid for all of the food, decoration, party bags and cake it all adds up. To try and save some money I always aim to make as many of the decorations as I can, like for example the cups...

I brought a massive pack of Tesco value plain white cups which cost pennies. I then printed off the above image from the web (I cannot find the original source for this, if it's you please shout). I then cut it out and stuck it onto all of the cups. It was quite time consuming but worth it I think. As cups with pre-printed design on can cost you around £2.00 for a pack of 8 where as I only paid 55p for a pack of 25!

 I also stuck some on some old beer bottles that we had lying around ready for recycling, just to add some more decoration to the table.

Like my daughters Enchanted Forest Party that we had last year I made up name labels for all of the food. This is the fun bit...

I made the labels myself by printing off images from the web and sticking them all together. The little flags I brought online and I believe they cost me about £2 for a pack of 50!

I also wanting to get some healthy food in there somewhere...

 The party food doesn't have to be expensive, if you shop around you can find some great deals. I personally like to use a lot of the value range party foods that you can find in most supermarkets. Kids don't care in the slightest about how much the food cost. Here's the party boy enjoying his value party snowballs...

I started to worry about finding my son a pirate outfit for the day. Every pirate outfit I found online seemed to cost between £15 - £25 which is way more than I was prepared to spend on an outfit that he would only wear once! Until luck would have it I went into our local charity shop on my weekly recky and came across a pirate outfit and it was only £1...

For the table decorations I was able to use the paper plates that we had left over from my daughters party and make it work with the new theme, from toadstools to pirates. I also brought a few bags of gold coins in advance at Christmas in our local pound shop to scatter across the tables. The gold on the table were rocks from the garden that I spray painted with gold spray, again form the pound shop...

For the party bags I brought the red and white striped paper bags online at very low cost. I printed the name labels off on my computer and stuck them on. I then just used some string I had at home to tie them off. I thought they turned out pretty good...

So there you have it, a thrifty pirate party. I think everyone enjoyed themselves...

I'm linking up with Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping's linky Ta Dah Tuesday

Thrifty Finds Of The Week

This week I have found some great thrifty finds in charity shops and also at a local jumble sale.

First off I found these gorgeous picture frames at a charity shop in Exeter, £3 each...

  

I brought them with the intention of putting my own pictures of the kids in them but when I got them home I realised that it wasn't very easy to get the pictures out, so I have left them in. I think the original pictures are growing on me though.

I also found this retro pot to go in my kitchen for only £1.00...

After I had finished raiding the charity shops I headed off to the jumble sale where I got a load of great bargains...

 All the adult clothes were 50p each and the childrens clothes were only 20p! So I stocked up...

My favourite item by far was this lovely knit jumper...

I also love this vintage style top for my daughter...

 So what about you, found any great bargains this week?

I'm linking up with Magpie Monday over at Me & My Shadow

The Joys Of Charity Shopping

I had a very weird day on Wednesday! It was my first morning all on my own in about 4 and a half years. My baby went to pre-school.

I didn't really know what to do with my self and I thought I'd just go home and catch up on 4 and a half years of housework, that just never gets done and then I thought I have devoted all that time to my children taking them to toddler groups, sign and rhyme classes or whatever the latest craze is at that time. So I'm going to spend the morning doing something that I want to do and something that I just can't do with two little ones in tow. Raid the charity shops!

I love charity shopping. I get a real buzz when I walk into a shop, not knowing what treasures you will find inside. I then I get an even bigger buzz when you find a real bargain. I hardly ever buy new anymore, I just find new products boring in comparison, they have no history and no story.

Sometimes you don't find anything in any of the shops and then you have days when every single shop you go into has something that you simple must have. This day was one of those days.

Here's a few bits I found that I was really pleased with...

 These two Moroccan lanterns were £3.99 for the pair!

 and these two, his and hers, crochet blankets were just £2 each.

The kids love them and it's really cute when they are all snuggled up on their chair together with their blankets.

So what about you are you a charity shopper or does the idea of buying second hand goods just not appeal to you?

...and then there was Bob!

We seem to have a new edition to our family.
His name is Bob and he's a hedgehog! (One of the stuffed and cuddly kind)
Bob came into our lives while I was out shopping with Lj.
I'd just like to point out at this point that Lj hates shopping with a passion. Infact she hates it so much that the minute we get into a shop she screams at the top of her voice and won't stop until we leave.

So on this particular day we are in a charity shop, Lj screaming while i'm trying desperately to look for a frame for a picture.
Next thing I know the volunteer came up to Lj and gave her this fluffy hedgehog (Bob) and ask her to look after it for him. The screaming stop instantly. Hooray now I could look in peace.
So I found my frame, went to the till and paid the man but it then came to the moment where we had to give Bob back.
I tried to get him off of her but she wasn't having any off it. The volunteer, sensing the impending meltdown, said she could keep it. Result!
That was by far the easiest shopping trip i've ever had with Lj in tow.

The problem I'm now faced with however is getting Bob into the washing machine.
Lj never lets him go (hence the picture above).

It's very obvious looking at Bob's matted fur and slighlty funky smell, that Bob had formally been loved by another sticky fingered little one and is really in dire need of a good scrub down.

The thing I don't get though is that since Lj was born we seem to have accumilated a number of furry, fluffy & cuddly soft toys and she has never shown an interest in any of them. Even with me putting an adorable (clean) elephant in her cot every night, hasn't resulted in her growing any kind of attatchment to it. Backed up by the fact that I come in every morning to find it on the floor on the other side of the room, where she has clearly thrown it out of her cot in disgust.
And yet here we are with Bob, the manky hedgehog that the man in the charity shop had to give away for free because no one wanted to buy him.

I fear that I'm going to be spending a lot more time with Bob in the coming months.

Bribery

I was just successful in going into town, in half term, with two kids and no buggy.
Whoever said that bribery isn't the answer clearly never had kids! X