get a set of salad shooters and some winter tires
best money i ever spent. Brigestone blizzacks are wonderful
You should be able to get them for 400-500 total, and since you only use them a few months a year and they arent being burnt out on, they will last a long time.

 

ok first off your never going to get anywhere with bald tires, I don't care if you put 1000 LBS of crap in your trunk. The tread helps a lot, even if its just regular all season tread. I drove my T/A around in Nebraska winters, which can get pretty killer, and never had a problem (except starting up from a stop sometimes) because I had decent tread left on my SS20's.

If you want to help yourself out, get some snow tires and put em on the back. If you can't afford that and regular tires, get some decent all seasons (its better than a bald tire).

Chains are great but if you happen to spin the tires too much or go above like 50MPH they can fly off, causing severe damage to the rear quarters (check the chains, they are rated at a certain MPH). Studs are the same way. Just go regular snow tires and watch what your doing.

 

I bought a set of chains at walmart for 20 bucks, but before Id do that (if I were you) I would get some new tires...... hell, call a used tire place and see if they have anything that will fit that has any more tread on them (Ive done that for some burnouts, but they only seem to last a couple minutes........... )

 

I've never seen snow

 

I put 4 Michelin Arctic Alpins (225-55-16) on stock salad shooters. Traction improved 100 fold. I also have battery relocated to the passenger rear wheel well. Car has great traction, went right thru almost 10" snow uphill with no traction problems.
I paid $490.00 for tires including mount, balancing and disposal fees.

Now I need to find snow tires for the M3..