Poor like me? Don't spend eighty bazillion dollars on bird toys from pet stores and catalogs... your bird would rather just chew up looseleaf paper anyway. Here's a list of things my birds have enjoyed:
Paper! - Cut into strips, crumpled into little balls, free little scraps or clipped together and attached to the cage, stuff that I'm trying to write on...
Stay away from newsprint (since the ink comes off easily), but I see no problem with using colored paper (like contruction paper) unless they seem to be actually eating it. You can give them different thicknesses of paper, even cardboard if you want (corrugated, toilet paper tubes, etc). Ziggy has even been known to chew on dollar bills when he finds them, too.
Pencaps - Ziggy's fascination with pencaps seems to be endless, it's amazing how long they'll hold his attention. They come in different shapes, different kinds of plastic, different textures, and it will keep him busy for a long time. I strung a bunch of them together on a piece of twine and hung it in his cage, but he'll steal them from me while I'm writing, too. His favorites are the softer plastic types, and anything with a bumpy texture. BE CAREFUL if you have a larger bird, they may be able to break pieces off some types of pencaps, so keep an eye on them.
Beads - Be careful what kind of beads you give your bird based on their size; Ziggy is a medium-sized bird, and the smallest he's allowed to have are pony beads. Again, anything with a texture is especially fun... Some of Ziggy's favorites are star-shaped and animal-shaped. He has tons of them strung on toys, but likes to play with them individually too, and laughs like a maniac when he sees a bunch of them scattered on the floor. If you have a variety of shapes or colors, you can play little games like having your bird pick out a particular color, choose one that's different from the others, etc.
Buttons - Same as beads, just be careful not to give your bird anything too small. Different textures are fun here too. Sew them onto a piece of fabric and let your bird pull them off, thread a bunch of them onto a string, etc.
Braided string - Twine, hemp, cotton string, yarn, raffia... braid it, stick some beads on it, leave a tassel on the end, and you've got a toy.
Random things - Little plastic things, keychains, popcorn, zippers, little whiffle balls, who knows what your bird will think is amusing. Just make sure it isn't anything they can break apart and would be inclined to swallow (assuming it isn't food), anything that had paint they might pick off, anything they could get caught/tangled in, etc. ALWAYS supervise your bird when you give him a new or questionable toy.
