Money is really hard to get in the first few hours because trainers now ask for gold as well and a whole lot too; for instance to learn taking some basic trophies in the first village i think you need at least 1k gold which is a fortune in the beginning; a good way to get some gold is to learn transcribing scrolls fast and spam the open lock spell (but remember to keep at least a scroll in the inv otherwise you wont be able to transcribe), then rob everything in the first village haha. Imo open lock spell is OP and is way better than lockpicks because lock scramblng is on and couldnt find a way to disable it.
Another good way to make money is to learn all the cooking recipes (they are really cheap, only 5g - you will get the ingredients by looting all the stuff from everywhere) and make every food then sell it to the cook from the notice boards.
Also, due to the story, villagers treat you like garbage at the start and you will want to kick their ass but instead of that just help them, you can get some good xp and gold. Another good source of xp is buying all the books from vendors, they are really cheap 10g or so and can give you 50-150 xp.
These things arent that big hints, you will figure them anyway when you play
As for melee combat, i think edge weapons are better in the first hours, alot of mobs take bigger dmg from that than blunt. You can buy cheap bestiaries anyway and learn mob weaknesses anyway.
