I agree- sounds to me like you are already a quilter! Welcome! You will find a lot of answers here and lots of friendly people.
Some things that I do that save money and/or inspire me:
check out quilt books at the library- if I really love them I will buy them
surf the net for ideas (try Flickr)
draw my quilts on graph paper and then color them with colored pencils
make sure I don't use really poor fabric- learned that one the hard way- it doesn't have to be expensive, but don't get the poor quality stuff because it will shred
DON'T WORRY ABOUT RULES! They are made for breaking!
:0)