Generally in life you have to choose between free time or money. Annoyingly having more of the former usually means less of the latter.
Personally I only had to do UK based travel a few days a month and I hated it. Staying in hotels on your own away from creature comforts gets old fast, I don't know how you can stay away from home 4/5 days a week.
So for me if we could still survive on the pay cut it would be option 3, enjoy some time with the kids while they are cute
bedtime stories and bath time chaos.
In a few years you might find a new career path anyway.