Home Dojo on a Budget

I've been wanting to take the extra space in my upstairs bonus room and turn it into a workout area for doing cardio, newaza drills, and uchi-komis. It would be nice to have some tatami or fold-out gym mats up there, but I didn't want to spend over $100. Anyway, here's what I had to work with.
Right now, the back half of the bonus room is just a repository for Lena's old toys. We also have a nice textured berber carpet which looks pretty, but it's murder on knees and elbows when you're crawling around with a toddler. So it's definately not good for ground work drills.

After looking around online and vetoing tatami and gym mats, I decided a few thin puzzle mats were the way to go. I certainly wouldn't be doing any falls on them, but they would serve for what I intended. The best bang for the buck I found was at Sams Club. One package of 8 mats covers 33 sqare feet and only cost $20. I grabbed a couple of packages and took them home. After clearing out some space, I had my trusty sidekick test out the softness and durability of one of our new mats. She approved so we laid down 16 mats. Lena immediately tried out her "judo flip".I tried the mats out myself, and they seem to hold together pretty well. It's certainly better than working out on the berber carpet. I got to thinking while looking at our handywork and noticed our old wooden futon. If I ever want to do ukemi or teach throws to Lena when she's older, the futon could be dragged beside the puzzle mats and make a nice crash pad.
I also had one of those rubber exercise tubes that can be attached to a door. Those make a great uchi-komi station. While I was trying out a few turn-ins, Lena asked what I was doing. After telling her, she responded that she also would like to try some "scoomies".She's barely three and she's already done her first uchi-komi. *sniff* They grow up so fast.
So there you have it. It certainly can't take the place of the dojo, but I can at least do situp and pushup drills without getting rug burns, and Lena has a place to run around and do her flips. Not bad for under $100.