Were can I find cheap containers to store rice, beans, and wheat? My mother-in-law said that most restaurants have good containers that they throw away, but I am having a hard time finding them.

food grade plastic buckets.

Go to the doughnut shop or full like grocery store's bakery department and ask for icing buckets. The MIGHT charge you $1 for a bucket and lid but they often give them away for free!

I get all I could ever use from the bakery dept at my two local Publix grocery stores.  

How do you sell the canisters? The ones we just got from our bakery, the lids do not stay on very well.

I haven't had any problems with the lids sealing and staying closed on the buckets I have been given.  Most only use the bucket for protection and use mylar to seal the food in.

ditto on the bakery.
I got mine for a buck a piece
also bought a couple of 55gal drums that had vinegar in them.

(they also make salad dressing)



ps. ditto on the mylar bags for extra protection

Mine are free from the bakery
where are you getting your mylar bags from

I store my rice in a big popcorn tin.

A fellow prepper and I spent the evening washing buckets and lids.  We ended up with about 40, for free from local bakeries.
From the LDS store, obtain mylar bags and oxygen absorbers.  We are going to share them with others, so we got 500 of each, it ends up being fifty cents per bag and absorber.
I am going to use a heavy duty impact heat sealer on most of the bags, but we were using the sealer from a vacuum sealer tonight.  And then there is the 2x4 and clothes iron method... Whatever works for your situation.
I filled a few gallon sized mylar bags with various things and found out how much of certain things fit well:
- 5 lbs of white rice (x4)
- 5 lbs of black beans
- 3 lbs of elbow pasta (x4)
- one cannister (2 5/8 lbs) of quick oats (x2)

According to the serious preppers, this kind of storage will last for 15-20 years.  My goal is to have 20 buckets filled with this and other dry goods.  Pancake mix, cornbread mix, sugar, flour, etc.

Is there anything wrong with bagging the rice in mylar then storing the mylar bags in those household plastic storage containers?