Cheap seats for 2012 Odyssey?

My mom has a 2012 Odyssey and right now just one car seat. It's a Safety 1st All-in-One. I'm getting sick of taking my seats out to install in her van because I have a tight three across and get bruises and scraped knuckles every time. The three kids are:

3.5yo - 37.5", 33lb, 4T shirts, evenly proportioned, riding FF in the van (rides RF in a RN in my car, but I have no problem with her FF in the van at this point)

2x 10.5mo - 26", 18lb, 12mo shirts, short legs

I was thinking of giving the AIO to one of the babies and buying a FF seat for the three year old and a convertible seat for the other baby. I don't care if the FF seat turns into a booster or not. What would be relatively inexpensive and work well for a three across in the second row? It can be put into wide mode. We will buy another RF seat if the AIO is outgrown before I'm ready to turn, but it will be fine for awhile (they are pretty short babies). The convertible seat will not stay installed all the time but won't have to be installed any more than a few times a month, so super easy installation is not a must either. The FF seat will not be removed.

I would like the FF seat to have a nice, easy buckle and harness - my mom has pretty severe arthritis. That's part of the reason I want a new seat in her van for the toddler, the buckle and harness on the AIO are awful. She takes the three year old twice a week.

Thank you and sorry for the rambling!

The first seat that comes to mind for your 3 YO is the Evenflo Maestro. It is cheap compared to the other harnessed boosters and one of the narrowest as well. They usually run around $80-90. It is outgrown in booster mode at about the same time as harness mode, so you'd most likely need to buy a dedicated booster later on. I'm also not sure about the buckle/harness though- maybe someone else has more experience with that. The other common combo seats are the Graco Nautilus (more $$, wide), Evenflo Securekid (almost the same as the Maestro- makes a better booster but more $$), Harmony Defender 360 (PITB to put together & use) and Britax Frontier ($$$$).

For an inexpensive convertible I'd look at the Cosco Scenera, Cosco Apt, Safety 1st Guide 65, or the Evenflo Sureride.

I think I'll pick up a Scenera for sure... just found one with polka dots What about the Harmony Defender for the 3yo? I think it might be worth it to go up a little in price from the Maestro, especially since the seat is used a few times a week.

Never mind - I see what you said re the Defender!

What about the sureride for your 3 yr old? It has very high top slots, it doesn't turn into a booster but could be used for one of the babies down the road and a dedicated booster purchased.

I'd try the buckles in the store since I think all the Gracos and Evenflos (including SureRide) have the buckles a lot of people don't like. I tried a friend's Graco buckle and really hated how hard it was. I'm not sure what that leaves besides Britax though which is not ideal.
Do you think you will get a bigger vehicle later that you could move a Frontier to down the road? Its a great seat (and the new one coming out looks even better) but expensive for an occasional seat.

Wow, the Frontier is nice! I haven't done much car seat research outside of finding narrow seats, so basically anything wider than a RN is all new to me. Maybe I'll buy two Sceneras now and see if the grandparents want to go in on a Frontier as a bday present in the fall. I will be getting a larger vehicle (not certain of what yet, but it will be bigger!) in October 2014, so it will have a chance to be an everyday seat for much of its life.

If you decide to do that, I'd wait for the new Frontier90 to come out and pick between them. http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=241539 This thread tells about it solely based on Amazon putting it up before they were supposed to. Apparently Monday at noon more details will come out. The Frontier 85 is great, but the seatbelt installation can be tricky. It looks like the FR90 will be easier. We will see. I'm hoping it doesn't sell at full price since the FR85 is normally a lot less.

A buckle bopper might help your mom in the mean time of working with cheaper seats.

http://www.bucklebopper.com/