Don't blow a lot of dough.
You will soon know more about the conditions you will be typically diving (locally, I presume in Florida, you can use mostly tropical gear?) But the question of whether you wil be doing rocky beach entries will influence whether you need little, thin-souled boots or thick, tough soles like mine.
Other than that, take your time, rent what you can for a while & try other peoples' gear in the pool, talk to locals & watch which models you see on the beach.
The wetsuit may be your first major purchase, as you may prefer to swim only in your own pee (and fit is important; the exact amount of neoprene will influence your weighting & you don't want that fluctuating all over the place.)
If you make a "bad" purchase of the more big-ticket items, you may still get trade-in value later, but I would wait on computers, BC, & reg for the moment. Tanks can wait longest, until u r diving so often that the calculated cost of buying ($100-250) is less than renting every weekend (about $8/day).
By the end of my OW class, I had already replaced my booties, fins, mask & snorkel due to bad fit in the water. Good thing I got the cheap ones...or was that WHY I replaced them? Hmmmmm?