Many of us started with a some once fired factory brass that had been kept, a simple Lee loader kit, box of bullets, pound of powder and box of primers. A square of plywood on the kitchen table and a plastic/rubber mallet. All my first 500 or so went "bang", just following the instruction in the Lee Loader. I still have all that stuff, but haven't used it for 30+ years.
If I were to do it over - first, get a reloading manual - Speer, Sierra, Hornady, Nosler - doesn't really matter which - in the end you will have all of them and then some. All of these have really good step-by-step instructions with pictures. Go with published information, not necessarily what you read on Internet (Ha! I realize the irony of you reading that here!).
Get or set up a place to work that is without distractions - no TV, no kids or significant other needing attention, no emails or text messaging, etc. For example, if you ever get an interruption, and double load a powder charge because you forget where you were at in the sequence, or miss a charge and end up with a squib part way up the barrel, the results will never be good. Not to be "histrionic" about reloading - it is quite safe and very satisfying so long as you properly manage all the risks.
You are going to want a loading "bench" to fasten your press to. This is where your stated "lack of handiness" might be challenged, but, really, a 2x10 or 2x12 4 feet long mounted on a wall about 32" off the floor, with 2x10 "legs" on each end makes all the strength you'd need to mount a reloading press. I've heard of it being done on kitchen table, but never tried drilling mounting holes through mine (I am still married after 41 years and like it that way
I've loaded thousands of centerfire rounds with a single stage press. It's an hour or so to run 100 brass through the sizing die, and trim them all with a Lee case length trimmer in an electric drill, chamfering with an RCBS chamfer tool. You must have a powder scale. At the start, you can use it to weigh out each load. Then you'll likely want a powder trickler to make that go a bit faster. Maybe then you'll want a powder measure - that does you no good without the scale to get it set up in the first place. And, eventually, you'll be into a electronic powder dispensing system like I now use.
Set of dies for each caliber you plan to load. Shell holder for each different cartridge head size. (Lee dies normally come with the shell holder included, RCBS don't).
You would not be far wrong to consider an RCBS Rockchucker starting kit or something similar - everything from Manual to scale is in there - add a set of dies, some way to trim cases (Lee case trim set up is very handy), powder, primers and bullets and you should be on your way.
One last point - I'd forget any notion about this being "economical". My Dad shot literally truck loads of deer and moose in his lifetime, but I doubt he ever owned more than a box and a half of cartridges at any one time in his life. He thought 2 boxes of 22 Long Rifle was a lot of shells. He could not fathom going through 500 centerfire loads over a summer, without anything other than holes in paper to show for it. And now I have found out that casting one's own bullets does not make the pastime any cheaper either!
