Ive been playing a month, I've been watching random videos on YouTube but in general I'm unsatisfied with the drip feed and unorganised nature of the information.
As others have said, the CC 30 day course is an excellent course for beginners. If you play cash games, then just skip the sessions about preflop push/fold poker, ICM and other strictly tournament related subjects.
I've bought poker tracker 4, hope it's the best one as I didn't bother researching hah. I know about VPIP and PFR stats.
That is an excellent decision, which show, you are on the right track already. Learn to use the HUD and also use the build in functions like the leak tracker to improve your game.
I've been looking at chances of hitting certain hands and playing top 20% of hands only, playing more tightly than that out of position.
There are many free charts for preflop these days, and you can have some free simulations with a solver like GTO Wizard. So try to get your preflop game at least somewhat close to GTO. Maybe you can keep most of your 3-bets for value at 2NL, but you should definitely get to a point, where the raise first in ranges are pretty much mussle memory.
I've lost about $35 dollars, invested $60 ish so far!
$35 is less than 20 buyins at 2NL, so no worries about that. Your first goal should be to become good enough to beat 10NL. And then those $35 is only 3,5 buyins, which is pretty easy to win back. So dont worry about, how much you win or lose at 2NL, since its only a training ground.
one thing that i struggle with is if i have a borderline decent hand like JQos in mid position. I play it aggressively preflop and on the flop when i hit a queen, a King comes on turn and i dont know what to do when theres someone to act after me! Carry on with a bet or just check it, look weak and ditch it when im raised..
This is an example of a hand, where you need to use pot control and try to get to a cheap showdown to not condense your opponents range to much. If you go bet, bet, bet with a hand, that is now second pair, most opponents will only call you down, when you are beat. So you need to check the turn, and then the standard line is to call any kind of normal bet and then make a decision on the river.
Sometimes the river might go check-check, and you are good. Or the turn goes check-check. Sometimes you will hit another Q, which is of course awesome. And sometimes the opponent will bet big on turn and big on river. And then its generally fine to just fold, unless you have some kind of read on the opponent. At least at stakes as low as 2NL, where most people dont find enough bluffs.
There is some argument, that some players at 2NL are so bad, that maybe you can actually go bet, bet, bet and still get called by worse hands like any pair or even ace high. But I dont recommend getting to deep into the weeds of making massive adjustments to exploit the worst players at 2NL. The reason is, it will teach you some strategies, which you then need to unlearn already at 5NL and 10NL.
So I would always err on the side of giving my opponents more credit, than perhaps they deserve. And the main point here is, that just because its uncomfortable to be out of position and face a bet, this is not a good reason to bet ourselfes. You say, you "look weak", if you check. Ok cool. That means, you think, it will induce a lot of bluffs or maybe value bets from worse hands like third pair or second pair worse kicker. So you just call those bets and get value that way.
And if you really think, that a lot of worse hands will bet both turn and river, then call the river bet as well. You will soon find out, if your opponents range is as wide, as you assume. I have already said, what my default line would be. But against certain players it can definitely be fine to call them down, if their range is way to wide preflop, and this continue all the way to the river. Those type of players are usually referred to as maniacs or aggro fish, and the HUD of PT4 can help you to identify them.
