Can you get larger stones or branches from outdoors or in a pet store?
Otherwise, I did a lot myself (store-bought is only: burrowing clay, food bowl, and I had to buy the branch as I live in a desert city and there it's impossible to collect wood). For example, I made all the background climbing structure and the structure to the left myself.
How I made it:
MDF panels (over the corner, so screwed together in "L" shape), to which I added styrofoam (for the horizontal "boards"; I pierced nails through the MDF and stuck the styrofoam to it) and then covering that in construction foam. Once the construction foam has hardened, I cut away pieces where it was just too much. Then I smeared everything with tile glue (grout) into which I mixed sand. All the construction foam and styrofoam must be covered. Once dried, I glued it with aquarium-grade silicone into the tank, sealing all around to prevent insects from getting behind. That's quite a standard procedure to build such structures, it's durable and safe.
I then added a bit more structure with burrowing clay (a product for reptiles, e.g. from Zoomed), like visible in the second image.
All this provides my dragon with space for climbing, three different caves (one of them a deep burrow), elevated hiding spots. Very durable and holds up very well to all the climbing. It has zero damage yet.
Regarding affordability: It was ways cheaper than pet store things. For this, you would need 1 or 2 MDF panels, some styrofoam (can be from packaging material, that's what I did), a few nails, one can of construction foam, tile glue and sand. Cost depends on what your hardware store charges for this.
I also have live plants in the enclosure. When my dragon was younger (and smaller), he was literally sitting in the aloe leaves. He also has a golliwog plant which is edible and he eats it a lot. (In the first picture, the golliwog is the "bush" to the right.) It can be found in garden centers. Here I would recommend, if you want to use it, to have at least two plants so you can use them in rotation. I have more and always let them regrow on the balcony once my dragon has eaten half of the plant that's in the enclosure. I like it as the golliwog provides a shady hiding place behind it, and it being edible gives my dragon fresh crunchy greens all day long as well as when I might not be at home one or two days (small dragons should not be left alone that long but for an adult dragon who is healthy that is no problem).
I have this setup since I got my dragon a year and a month ago, and both me and my dragon are very happy with that. (The dragon being very happy with it, I'd say as he uses everything and generally appears to be confident, happy, exploring and healthy.)
I scrubbed these things with soap and water and baked in our oven to sanitize them.
) I’m putting something like that on my “one day” list!!
