Well, in no particular order, I almost consider the temp gun a necessity as they're far too useful to me, I have used and liked eco earth, cypres, and papertowel for various reasons, a scale is nice to have but not a necessity, and I wouldn't watse the money on any petstore light bulb. Though it will cost more initially, I would recommend a ceramic heat emitter on a second thermostat to control ambient temps. Then it will not matter if the room temps fluctuate a bit, and you can get a low enough wattage CHE so that if the t-stat fails on, it won't cook the cage. And good on ya for actualy wanting to get the setup right before getiing the snake home.