Motherhood on a Budget

My daughter is 16 months old now...
Despite my resolution not to buy unnecessary commercial toys, we bought two big ticket plastic items this week. She's at the little mommy stage, carrying and kissing her plastic (ugh, that's a subject for another post) doll and her stuffed animals.
She's shown interest in bikes and riding toys when visiting other places. So, we snatched up a tonka truck for $10 on craigslist. She's also had lots of fun with the play kitchen at grandma's, so Dora's talking kitchen found its way into my car this week from another craigslister. The gal selling Dora's kitchen removed the batteries before handing my purchase over (um, can we say cheap?). But that's fine, I really don't know why a kitchen needs to talk anyway.
We probably have one more purchase ahead, because the little one is into everything. Climbing into cupboards, hiding under the table, under my desk, she even crawled into the dog's crate. So, we're pretty certain she needs a fort/house/tent. I realize the simple answer is a blanket draped over chairs, etc. But we don't seem to have the necessary sturdy furniture in the right room for that solution. A cardboard box sounds good too, until we think about the kinds of critters that live in this valley. So, we're watching craigslist, for a washable tentish item.
I suppose we could be hitting garage sales, but 7am is just too early for baby and I.