How do I get started using CiviCRM?
Welcome to CiviCRM.

There are a lot of online resources which hopefully you have already discovered eg the User Guide and there is also a Dashlet that gives you helpful links

There are also training videos and webinars and meet ups available, which would be a cheaper (or free).

There are many providers/partners who provide paid support for Non Profits getting started with CiviCRM - which probably isn't the answer you want, but the list of Partners is here

If you make an interesting pitch you might find that someone around here might just offer to give you a one hour sprint through core features to give you a quick start. (PM me if you want, I can probably squeeze something in over the next few days - the weather is shitty here so not going far!)

Also worth getting on https://chat.civicrm.org/civicrm for free support in a chat environment.