Hey Grado, if you want to play, but can't afford things like lessons and such, go online and learn chords, there are lots of tutorials to show you in video, or written stuff you can follow along on. I only had one book that showed me all the basic chords when I began, I learned those, and there as no stopping me after that. I was playing songs in about four days.
Having the instrument is all you need to get going. and some strings, you will need strings.lol get cheap ones, cost ya less than ten US dollars
I did play saxaphone, and cello in middle school and high school. But it was only tiny bit of help because guitar is a completely different beast.
Later
just my two cents,
Eek