Agreed with the boots. I have $500 rossignol soft boots and ~$200 skis I bought that were end of season rentals.
I got the boots from
Techno Sport. A big thumbs up as they have a 1 year boot guarantee and do lots of servicing. I have wide feet so boots are always snug. The soft boots seemed the best fit but after a few years I still got cramps in my one foot. I took the boots in and they stretched the boot a bit without charging me extra for it. Maybe you could get some sort of package deal from Techno.
My skis came from The SKi Barn out by COP. For my use the former rentals are more than enough as I'm just a turquoise skier (green-blue) so I'm not needing super high performance. These are Salomon skis with $200 Salomon bindings. Might be worth a look at rental places to see if you can score a deal.