Weekly discussion: budget options — am I overthinking this?

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks. This came up at a meetup recently and the room was split, so curious what the broader community thinks.

I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right.

The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.