I have had the system for a long time. I have been a bit frugal with the dies that I have bought. I try and think if the size and shape are something I use frequently. My first dies were probably the 2.5 inch strip cutter which is probably my most frequently used die as that is the size I used most often for binding plus in piecing. Early dies also included the 2.5 inch square die, 2.5 inch half square triangle, and 5 inch square one. I like the single shape in mulitple dies the best as I make bed sized quilts. With the 2.5 inch square die which has nine of them on the die and if I place the 6 layers on the die, that would be 9 X 6 or 36 2.5 inch squares cut with one pass. I usually only use 4 layers as it is easier to roll and I feel I get a better cut doing that but that is still 24 squares with one pass. Bonnie for a while was using the triangle in a square block in her mystery's and those are time consuming to cut so I add a couple of those dies to my collection. I find I really don't have as much waste as I thought. I have drawn an outline of the cutting space for each die 1/4 of an inch from the blades. So, for example on my 2.5 inch square dies, the blades are arranged so you have three rows of 3 shapes. The amount of fabric to cut this would be a 7.5 inch square but I want to make sure I get the full square so I cut my fabric 8 inches wide which gives me an extra 1/4 inch on either side. I most often just leave the strip the full length, make the first cut, then move the fabric up again and keep cutting the entire length. When I was cutting the squares with a rotary cutter and ruler, I found that I was needed to square up the fabric occasionally and was actually wasting fabric then to. I think it was because my ruler would slip or my blade would wobble. On some dies like equal angle triangles, you can save fabric by flipping the fabric as you cut out your shapes. Of course, some shapes like circles are going to waste more fabric. I am glad I got the set up as it has saved me hours on all the mysteries I have done.