My very first true pair that didn't have plastic heels were $50 used skates from another skater at the rink. My mom wanted to make sure that I was going to stick with it before investing a lot into skates.  Then when I started jumping I think maybe 2 years later (?) my coach went to my mom and said "She needs new skates" and my mom said "How do you tell?" and coach proceeded to take one side of the ankle on my boot and easily bend it all the way down to the blade. Even some of the regulars I see at the rink will skate in the rentals for MONTHS. It's only when they finally get their own skates that they really see improvement. It's not a cheap hobby, but it's definitely better to invest in the equipment because those rentals are just terrible.