Buy new car or replace ball joints on Nissan Sentra?

I have a 2016 Nissan Sentra with about 117,500 miles on it. I drive a lot because I live in a rural area. My car has been making this god awful creaking sound when I turn it and I asked the oil change guys for their opinion and they seem to think the ball joints need to be replaced. From my quick research this looks to be about a $1200 fix. I’ve also been having issues with my car “catching” when I am accelerating. This usually is trigger by using cruise control on the highway going uphill because it can’t maintain the speed so it slows down and then ramps up the RPM. After it just keeps stopping when I try to accelerate past a certain point. Th is isn’t a huge issue because it’s just on the highway and I can drive slower, but I’m worried it could become a bigger problem.

All that to say, money is tight and I don’t want to pay $1200+ in repairs if the lifespan isn’t much longer. Any thoughts? Advice? TIA