-- You don't care much about money right now, to the point that you're willing to go to $0 for option 2
-- You work too many hours at your current job to do what you want to do.
-- You have an outstanding job offer (you didn't say what the expected workload is but it sounds like probably the same?)
It sounds to me that the obvious choice is to ask your current employer to cut your hours but not your pay. Or maybe just cut your own hours. Worst case they say no and you go to the other job or quit. Best case they say yes and you can maintain your income but still get what you want done.
It sounds like your main priority should be more hours to for you to work towards programming, but you need to balance that with the risk that if you quit you may not be able to get another job right away, especially if the economy tanks.
You're in a much better position if you at least have some sort of job so you aren't losing money.