You are getting hosed. I'm guessing you're around 35K miles, and the light came on because the fluid is reading low in cold weather despite looking fine... As your brake pads wear, you need more fluid in the system to fully extend the pistons. The fluid is also less viscous in cold weather, so it senses different. Same thing happened to me a couple months back.

Lifetime pads cost me ~25 bucks at O'Reilly and it takes all of 30 minutes to change the front pads out.

Unless there is a need to replace or turn your rotors, there's no reason a front brake job should cost anywhere in that range. New rotors run about $80-$100 each.

If you've got a couple thumbs, a large C-Clamp and a socket set, just about anyone can change their own front pads.