I've had my accuquilt for about 2 years now and love it. I have just about all the strip dies as I figured I could stretch my $$$ and use them to cut squares as well. I got most of the strips first and then I started buying the more specialty shapes such as 1/2 square triangles and triangles in a square, etc. The strips dies now have markings on them to cut diamond shapes. So getting the strips really are economical depending on how you use them. I can say that I really enjoy using my accuquilt.