I'm not in your field, but I would go for the master's. In many fields (not sure if yours is one of them) your master's work can count towards some of the requirements for your doctoral program - both in terms of classwork and in terms of thesis (i.e. your doctoral thesis is a more in-depth treatment of something related to your master's thesis).
If money is the issue, keep in mind that if you have any student loans, your repayment of them is deferred as long as you're in school - so that will help a little with the bills
Good luck