Они то обсуждают будущий отпуск, то спорят о деньгах, но потом всё‑таки находят компромисс.

the money

Breakdown of Они то обсуждают будущий отпуск, то спорят о деньгах, но потом всё‑таки находят компромисс.

• но: but
• о: about
• отпуск: the vacation

Questions & Answers about Они то обсуждают будущий отпуск, то спорят о деньгах, но потом всё‑таки находят компромисс.

What does the pattern то … то … mean here, and how would you translate its feeling into English?

The correlative particles то … то … express alternation: one thing happens, then another, often repeatedly or in a back‑and‑forth way.
In this sentence it’s like saying:

• “Now they’re discussing their future vacation, now they’re arguing about money”, or
• “They keep either discussing the upcoming vacation or arguing about money”.

It suggests switching between these actions, not just a single sequence once.

Is this то the same word as the pronoun то meaning “that”?

Formally it’s the same word, but here it functions as a particle in a fixed pair то … то …, not as a pronoun (“that”).
You don’t translate it as “that” in English; you translate the whole construction as “now … now …”, “sometimes … sometimes …”, or “either … or …” depending on context.

Why are all the verbs in the present tense? Does this describe something habitual?