When I was 13 or 14 I just had to have a drum kit, but my parents weren't gonna drop that kind of money so I had to improvise. I already had my pearl steel shell, a 12" wuhan, and (for some reason) a pdp throne that my parents got me when I joined the school band. Somehow I got a bass drum pedal so I put that on a cardboard box for a kick drum. I got another snare that was old and flaky and had split heads and a crap strainer, so I cut the mylar from the hoops and stretched and taped some blue plastic tarp over them. That was some kind of thwacky thuddy floor tom. I also had a little first act drum, some toy bongos, and a coffee can, which all needed to be arranged on the ping pong table in the basement.
I probably used SD1s, but I remember one time I bought a red oak dowel and whittled and sanded them into acorn tip 5Bs for HOURS, and I did a really good job, too! Turns out that that red oak dowel was very brittle and my sticks lasted about 20 minutes. I remember kicking the pedal was uncomfortable because my throne was so high, and the "toms" on the table were flat and hard to hit properly. And I have no clue where I put the china cymbal.
I played my stupid garbage kit for hours almost every day for months until my dad broke down and got me my $200 craigslist special that christmas. By the time I got it, I could already play my first 10 or 20 noob drum beats and let's-go-down-the-toms fills! Nostalgia...