I’m alright financially these days.

In the past, my pay from working in a bike shop and being a janitor at night barely kept the lights on.

I had a good friend group that all rode. The local trails were great but we’d pool money for gas to go ride better places.

As far as gear, my method was to simplify to reduce and eliminate maintenance issues. That meant a fully rigid single speed hardtail and sometimes, non cycling specific gear and clothing. There is a high markup on stuff like baggy shorts, gloves and tools. Why spend $60 on shorts when cutoff blue jeans with a good chamois underneath will work? Same with gloves. Hardware store gloves are pretty similar to mtb gloves and are $15 a pair instead of ~$30-40.

Go for durability over lightweight.

20% inflation is a bummer. I hope you can find lots of time to ride.