I, too, have a poor man's approach. I have radiant heat in my floors as well as an oil fired furnace and electric heaters. I use an outdoor wood burner to pipe hot water into the house. My thermostat is from ramsey electronics (will insert model number) and has 4 outputs which attach to four powerflash units.
When the temperature hits 68 degrees, the pump to supply water to the floor (zone 1) kicks on. I have it wired to an appliance module.
When the temperature drops to 65 degrees, a second pump (zone 2) kicks on that supplies water to a plenum above my furnace and the furnace fan kicks on.
When the temperature drops to 63 degrees, a UM506 trips the furnace.
I have a reed switched attached to the meter on my fuel tank, and when the level gets low, the furnace does not kick on, but the electric heaters get switched on as well. X10 wavplayer announces that "We are out of fuel oil" and "emergency electric heat engaged"
I also have two other zones on the water system hooked to simple thermostats that call water to my upstairs and the master bedroom (zones 3 and 4)
In the future, I plan to add monitoring to the wood burner to tell me when it needs restoked and a freeze alert on the water system to the outside to circulate water and prevent a burst pipe.
Also I am currently working on a system that pipes water to my attic (tin roof) that draws heat from up there and pipes it to my house or pool (depending on where I need heat)