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I love to cook. I try and eat at home at least two meals each day. A good set of pots and pans is a necessity in my life.

For years, I went about getting pots and pans in the worst possible way. It started like this…

I would first to go an online store like Amazon. I would do a search for a non-stick set in my budget, which was usually around $150 for a 7 to 10 piece set. As soon as I found a brand with good reviews, I would purchase it.

A few days would go by, and the set would be at more door step. After it’s arrival, I would head down to Goodwill and donate my old set, and start using my new set immediately.

Since I cook so much, it only took me a few months to see wear and tear and my new pots and pans. Which means in about six months time, I was already dreading cooking with what was supposed to be a new set of pots and pans.

I’m a little smarter now. I hate to admit, it took me a few times through, to actually figure out that buying and using pans this way was expensive and incredibly wasteful. What I really wanted was a quality professional set of pots and pans, but I didn’t have the money.

I came up with an idea. Instead of buying a set, what if I just start with one pan. So I ended up buying a high-quality stainless steel fry pan online. It costs a little over $100, but a few years later I still have this pan in my collection. Not to mention, I plan to have this pan in my cabinet for a long time because it has a lifetime warranty on it.

So now I finally had one quality pan for cooking. The thing is, I used this pan for about 75% of my cooking. With only a few more pans, I could essentially have a complete set, meaning 100% of the tasks I perform could be handled by my set.

After realizing that I didn’t really need a new 10-piece set, I bought the next pan on my list that I used the most, a medium sized sauce pan. Now I had two pieces of professional quality cookware that I know will last a lifetime. The best part was that these two pots and pans were able to take care of about 90% of the tasks I like to perform in the kitchen.

If I wanted to complete my set, all I needed was a few more items. Along with a stainless steel sauce pan and fry pan, I bought a large sauce pan, large fry pan, and a griddle. It took me a few more months to do this.

In a little over a year, I had finally bought my dream set of cookware. Instead of buying it all at once, I was able to absorb the high cost and spread it out over time. This way, I didn’t have to go into debt just to buy a few new pots and pans.

The only downside to this is that you have to do dishes more often. However, I found that instead of letting the dishes pile up, I instead did the dishes each time I cooked because I would need the same pan later on that day.

The next time you’re looking to purchase a new set of cookware, try thinking about purchasing one at a time. In the long run, you can save a lot of money. In the short run, you can eat a lot better food.

I’m a passionate cook. I run the blog http://clad-cookware.com/ . Where we review a new piece of All-Clad Cookware every day!