I am sure that everyone here has at one time or another drooled over the endless array of toys on the web today. Floggers, cuffs, canes, clamps, whips, and paddles are all abundantly available to us. The problem is that most of us have budgets that we have to follow and with the price of gasoline and other daily necessities, most times we don’t have a lot of extra money just lying around to buy a lot of fancy toys. But do we even need fancy toys? NO! Let me give an example.

I travel around the country doing demos for groups and BDSM events. One of the classes that I do is on violet wand play and violet wand fireplay. When I first started using a violet wand, I shopped around and found that for a nice kit with all the neat accessories, I would need to spend between 400.00 and 700.00 dollars. Even though the violet wand is still my greatest purchase and most fun toy, that is way too much to spend when there are bills to pay. I got around this price and ended up with a great kit. Here is how:

I bought the wand by itself with a contact probe for $200.00. Then I bought the following accessories:

• A bag of Christmas mylar at a dollar type store. With this I made a nice mylar flogger. $1.00
• A snare drum brush at the music store. $15.00
• Metal guitar finger picks for claws. 5 for $2.50
• Whartenburg wheel. $8.00
• Dental picks. $4.00
• Ball Chain $2.00
• Glass mushroom attachment. $15.00
• Butter knife from home. $0

This comes to a total of $247.50 for the same basic items that are found in a $499.00 kit. The rest of my kit is made up of sharp, pointy metal objects found around the home. I then bought a $7.00 dollar hard plastic handgun case to put the wand and accessories in. It came with foam that I cut to fit all of the items in it. People look at my kit and cannot tell it from any professionally bought expensive kit.

This is an example of the types of things that you can do to cut costs and still have quality toys to play with that are just as evil and fun as the BDSM shop bought items.

One of my favorite places to shop is Dom Depot (formerly known as Home Depot). You can find a host of items that bring on the best of responses from the bottoms you play with. Some of the items that I have used are rope, yard sticks, clamps in all sizes and tensions, dowel rods, eyebolts, chain, wood for paddles, pulleys, and many more items. The imagination runs wild in a place like that.

I have already mentioned the things that I have bought at the music store. The picks alone make great claws for sensation play. The pet store is a virtual paradise for kinky shopping. Collars, leashes, cages, scalpels, dog toys and accessories for puppy play, and neat metal brushes that work quite well for a variety of sensations.

The local Walmart or other discount store sells some great things for your toy bags. Wooden spoons are great impact toys and leave quite an impression. Vegetable gloves are great for abrasion play. Spatulas, wooden skewers, and basting brushes are a few of the kitchen gadgets that are quite pervertable. You can also find leather strips and scraps, laces, and cloth fabrics in the craft area. If the Walmart has a grocery section, stop off for carrots and cucumbers for insertion play, and don’t forget the gingerroot for that fine figging adventure.

A trip to the drug store will net you some fine medical play gear. Catheters, enemas, suppositories, bandages, casting supplies, alcohol, condoms to cover toys, lube, gloves, and other items to help with a medical scenario. A small first aid kit is also good to have in your toy bag just in case.

At the local army surplus store, I was able to purchase rope in all colors and diameters for 22 cents a foot. The rope is great for all types of bondage scenes. I also purchased a couple of uniforms from them for some role-playing adventures. They also have great boots in stock as well as many knives and other things that can be incorporated into play at great prices if you shop wisely.

The local thrift store is great for costumes for role playing as well as purchasing shoes. I have a good friend that is into cross-dressing and finds great bargains at the thrift store.

The bargains are as great as the imagination when it comes to buying inexpensive items to use for BDSM play. I currently use a suitcase for my rope and bondage gear and a double rifle case for all of my other toys. These were bought at the local sporting goods store at decent prices. If you shop around just a little bit, you will find that you can fill a toy bag in no time with great stuff. I have some pretty expensive floggers, whips, leather restraints, and other things that were purchased from commercial BDSM vendors and stores. They are fun items but I find myself playing with the inexpensive pervertables just as much if not more so with my partners. Try it -- you might just surprise yourself with the uses you come up with for everyday gadgets.