Dropping Out Was the Best Deal I Ever Made

It was baked into my family's culture growing up — get the best deal possible. Buy it on sale. When you find a good one, stock up. My depression-era parents lived by this code, and I learned it well. It served our family faithfully, especially through the lean years.

Honestly? The thrill of a good deal hasn't left me. So when my husband landed his dream teaching job at our local university and I could take classes for free, it was a no-brainer. I love to learn, and pursuing a degree that complemented the brain training work I was already doing sounded like the perfect fit.

I jumped in and genuinely loved it — until one class started quietly eating my life. Ironically, it wasn't the upper-level course that caused the trouble. It was a lower-level class that turned out to be surprisingly demanding. One night I was up until midnight finishing an assignment, and I'm not someone who procrastinates on things like that.

But I had committed. And it was free. So I kept going for half the semester — enjoying the learning, resenting the cost.

During a coaching session around that time, I brought up my dilemma. What came out of that conversation? Kind of a gut punch.

Free isn't free. There is always a cost.

In this case, the cost was my freedom, my time, and my energy. Every "free" thing costs you something — time, attention, or the chance to do something better with both. The question isn't just "what does this cost?" It's "what am I actually trading?"

So I did something former Terri never would have done. I dropped my classes.

And here's the part that surprised me most: I dropped them without a single ounce of guilt or shame. No "quitter" spiral. No second-guessing. That would not have happened ten years ago.

Here's what I've learned about brain training: it separates the decision from the story you tell about the decision. Old Terri would have stayed enrolled and called it commitment. New Terri recognized that sometimes the smartest move is to stop. Quitting isn't a character flaw. Staying in the wrong thing just because you started it? That one actually has a name — the sunk cost fallacy — and your brain is wired to do it automatically.

I also learned something about myself in the process: I fiercely value freedom. That's not a small thing to know.

It was quite the experience. I felt good about starting the classes. I felt equally good about leaving them when they started crowding out what mattered more.

I'm not swearing off good deals — not even close. But I'm definitely going to pause and look for the not-so-hidden costs before I jump at the next sparkly thing that lands in front of me.

A good deal is only good if what you get is worth what you give.

Where have you found a deal that didn't turn out to be as flashy or worth it as you expected?

 And when you figured it out — did you stay anyway?

High five! ✋ 

Tired of paying hidden costs for things that seem like a no-brainer? That's worth a conversation. 👉 https://www.outofsmallthings.com/workwithme

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