A friend has a John Deere front deck mower, but has found it so unreliable it now never leaves his garage. The steering is also very heavy.
We were also restricted with our budget and ended up with a good secondhand rear ejection mower- a Husqvarna. With a 21HP Kawasaki engine it has plenty of power for the hills. Cuts 5000m2 per hour, which is how mowers are specified here- it's not just the deck width that determines the figure, but the cutting and driving speed. So this machine has 4 cutting blades not two and so cuts twice as fast. The advantage of rear ejection is that cuttings can be collected for tidiness and also to use for mulch around trees- it's very hot and dry here. When you are not collecting mulch a rear deflector is fitted to put the cuttings down and well spread behind you. The problem with side ejection is the cuttings are often thrown onto the cut areas in a pile and that looks a mess which you may end up raking.
In my experience mulching using a closed deck just results in the deck jamming up with grass so, although it can be done with our machine by blanking off the deck grass outlet, we don't bother.
You will need to buy a lifting frame as well Possum, so you can get to the deck for cleaning and the blades for sharpening. Over here they are less than €100.