First I'll ask...what's the budget your wife has allowed you to buy fishing equipment?

Fair question, wife has not really put a limit on what I can spend. I figured I don't need the best of the best but also do not need to get my stuff from Walmart. Was thinking of getting everything at Fishing Tackle Unlimited.

You say you chartered in the past and the gear was provided. What gear did you prefer?

Well on offshore charters I've done you just get the standard rod where you flip and hold your thumb on the line. Pretty basic rod setup.

I mainly soak cut bait/crab for drum when I go to the jetty or pier. I like the penn spinfisher v 10500. It is sealed, braid ready, & lots of capacity. Got around 500 yards of braid & the rest 30lb mono. The mono takes the beating & is changed out when needed. It can easily handle any drum & some sharks. I have it on a dolphin tica surf rod. My cheap setup for the jetty/surf is a Daiwa df100a on an uglystick. Spooled with 300+ yards of mono. Mono tight lines better & stays put because of the stretch. They are both bait & wait setups. Haven't done offshore yet. Good luck & tight lines.

If you're on a budget but want something that'll last and handle most of what you can catch off the jetties/offshore...as far as a reel, I don't think you can go wrong with a Diawa BG 6500. It's a sealed reel, so maintenance is easy, just rinse it off after use. It'll hold a large amount of 65-80lb braid, so you can handle most anything you'll catch from the jetties and most offshore fish. (I caught a 75lb and 94lb yellowfin with mine two years ago) The cost is reasonable as compared to reels of similar quality. It has 33lbs of drag too. It's only $139 online. I'd match it with something like this- https://www.tackledirect.com/okuma-pchp-s-761h-pch-custom-series-rod.html
You can easily use this for surf fishing, at the jetties, for throwing poppers and swimbaits offshore and it'd be a good live bait rig for ling, big mahi, AJ's etc. It'd also last without breaking the bank.