By any chance the Walmart brush wasn't a Wilkinson Sword brush, was it?

If so, you'll eventually probably want to get yourself a better brush. I bought one to leave at my girlfriend's place and I find the Wilkinson is too soft, which makes it difficult to really pack in the lather in. Some Shoppers Drug Marts carry an Omega, which I hear is a bit better.

It sounds like you got a pretty nice vintage strop, though. Welcome to the world of straight shaving.

Oh, and one last piece of last minute advice... Try to keep relaxed. If you're like me, when it actually comes time to do the shaving you may get a touch nervous the first time... It's actually much, much easier than it sounds. You may find your first shave or two leaves your face a little uncomfortable, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly, and you're not likely to nick yourself any worse than you would with any other razor.

You may also want to pick up some aftershave. For a little while I used a Nivia moisturizing aftershave... but I quickly switched to a high alchohol content aftershave, it may burn like a bastard sometimes, but it makes you feel all nice and clean and sanitized. :P

Now, as for keeping it cheap... Just don't go wild on buying razors, hones or brushes and you should be fine. I went /nuts/ on buying razors, so it cost me a small fortune but a friend of mine has only one razor, one strop and so on... So doing it cheap can be done. :P

Hope you enjoy the Clauss!