Some of my favorite plays have been disney finger puppets, and you can recreate the entire movie, where some people even go as far as writing a little basic script and following it. Not the entire script word for word, but just the important parts. Who knows, with the invention of youtube maybe more people will setup little stages and see what happens from there.
The point is, if you want a cheap, or even free in some cases way to have fun and use puppets then find some puppets for your fingers and see if it's for you. If not, you can go always go another route and start finding other types of puppets too.
Get a dragon puppet, or a dog puppet and the limits are just how much time and effort you want to spend on it, which fortunately doesn't take much!
Decorating your home with spiral staircase kits.