When do you decide variable material components for Restoration in a ring of spell storing?

Question

The Ring of Spell Storing allows you to store any spell by casting it into the ring as the spell would normally be cast, presumably expending any material components required at this time as general rules.

A spellcaster can cast any spells into the ring, so long as the total spell levels do not add up to more than 5.

It is also clear that no material components are expended when casting spells from the ring.

The user need not provide any material components or focus to cast the spell...

However, some spells such as Restoration require a variable material component cost depending on decisions made when the spell is cast.

Components V, S, M (diamond dust worth 100 gp or 1,000 gp, see text)

This spell functions like lesser restoration, except that it also dispels temporary negative levels or one permanent negative level. If this spell is used to dispel a permanent negative level, it has a material component of diamond dust worth 1,000 gp.

What price diamond dust is used to store and cast Restoration in the ring and when is it expended?
Can you choose to expend the 1000gp diamond dust and then not dispel a permanent negative level?

Answer 1

You probably make the decision when putting the spell into the ring

For a spell to appear inside the Ring, you need to cast a spell into the Ring. When you cast a spell, you must use a material component:

To cast a spell, you must be able to speak (if the spell has a verbal component), gesture (if it has a somatic component), and manipulate the material components or focus (if any).

Emphasis mine. I presume that to provide the material component, you first need to understand if there is any.

The ring behaves much like a scroll in that regard, and the spells are even cast at the minimum needed caster level (although, weirdly, save DCs are kept as for the original caster).

In games that I have seen, PFS included, scrolls of such spells have two (or more!) versions: with a costly component (e.g. if you want to use Raise Dead to resurrect a dead person), or without one (using the same spell to slay a vampire). Animate Dead would need you to specify the exact onyx gem to spend depending on how many HD you plan to raise.

It also should be this way

Not providing a material component the moment you put a spell into the ring would create a way to bypass material components altogether, which is very much frowned upon: almost all tables ban Blood Money, a spell that does precisely that, as written.