Help me decide between weekend plans — what would you do? [v1]

There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have.

Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. I want to write something more comprehensive about this later but starting with a quick post to gather thoughts.

For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land. Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. Long-time lurker, first-time poster.