Yeah but i'm a 51 year old woman. I lean toward self propelled, but I bought a cheap barrel one today at Kmart - it was $49 so it's not that much to lose if you don't like it, it's such a simple machine too, even I understand it and could sharpen it.
Self propelled are mostly well over $1000 here, but may be well worth the expenditure as paying someone to mow adds up to $300 -$400 a year.
I'm on a small acreage (mostly slope, it's the side of a hill) and there's 4 or 5 areas to mow which vary a lot. The small front and back lawns are level, then there's a very large grassed slope to the west, then there's a largish slope/level raised bank behind the house. There's also an uneven sloping bank to the north. The old lady that used to live her was super fit, one of those people who need to tire themselves out physically and she did it with a push mower (the husband did no physical work, had a paying job), but I'm nowhere near as strong or energetic as her.