He *is* trying to get it stable before hand. He said about to get, not "I went and got".
To be honest, I don't use a tank and a 40 sounds large for a baby. Brands to look for though: herpstat, helix for thermostats. I use a combo of flexwatt and zoomed for under tank heat, but the zoomed doesn't evenly distribute heat so probe placement is important.
Fluker's digital thermometres are cheap and work great, tupperware makes great cheap homemade hides, and bounty (the paper towel) a decent substrate.
In order to hold humidity most of your top will need to be covered anyway, so don't put too much money into that, security is most important there.
The sticky for glass tank set up is great.