My dumb self bought three different fancy pans over two years thinking each one would fix my cooking, and all it did was drain my wallet and clutter my cabinets. Then my sister hands me her old cast iron that sat in her garage for a decade, I scrub the heck out of it, and suddenly I'm making hash browns that don't stick and chicken with a crust I could never get before. I stopped grabbing fast food on the way home because cooking in that thing is actually fun now. That alone saved me way more than the pan ever cost. My only regret is not doing this sooner instead of wasting cash on pans that peel after a few months.