In short I’m worried we’ll spend our money getting certified and then not be able to afford to go but 2 or 3 times a year afterwards.
In 1998, I took the PADI OW course with my wife and son at a local dive shop. The cost today (I looked) is about the same as back then, $325, although now they teach SDI. That included classroom, pool sessions, materials, and gear use, with the exception of mask, fin, snorkel. With the cost of mask, fin, and snorkels, we paid about $425 apiece (mine was a little higher due to prescription lenses.)
We only took the course as we were going to go on our first trip out of the USA, to Grand Cayman, with some friends who suggested the diving. We did our checkout dives in GC. We didn't dive again until 7 years later which was the next time we left the USA. For a couple of years afterward we vacationed once a year to someplace we could dive. Retired in 2012 and now take 2-3 trips a year to places we can dive. I have never dived on the mainland of the U.S. - yet! Eventually we'll plan something in FL.
The 2 LDS's that are in Indy both offer dive trips throughout the year and I think some of the price are good, but we plan our own trips to go places where we can dive. We generally can do it cheaper because of timeshare/vacation club deals, but that's another story. We plan everything ahead of time, including dive ops, so we know the costs.
What I would say is that even 2-3 times diving a year is better than no diving. And if you have to take a year or 2 off, you are still certified when you come back.
Although the local diving is no where as nice as the tropics, it is diving, and it is cheap. If you can comfortably dive the cold dark quarries and lakes here, diving in clear open water is breeze.
Exactly (almost) what the guy at the LDS told me when I was thinking of getting AOW, but since he knew where I do my diving, he suggested getting in on a trip to the Caribbean since that is what I mostly dive. As I typed the last sentence it hit me that the 3 trips we have planned for 2019 will all be diving in the Pacific!