I used to polish everything by hand with the Mothers Aluminum polish. Thank god I was sponsored by Mothers or else I would have been paying what you did at Walmart.
After all these years of late night polishing by finger, I finally got smart and purchased a polishing buffer on a stand. Picked up some of the 6-step polishing compounds and now all my work turns out to a mirror finish.
I'm not sure what you purchased for a $148, but you can definitely get yourself a cheap buffer and a set of buffing wheels for $40 +-, and some polishing compounds for a lot less than what you spent.
Here is a motor I did.
