I think I have the key for your cloth diapering needs - Green Mountain Diapers:

http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/

There is an info page "new to Cloth"

http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/newmom.htm

(although I take umbrage at the "newmom" in the URL as I'm a dad who happens to be preoccupied with cloth diapers; am I the only one out there?)

You can get a ton of info from their website, even if you don't buy them there (although we did).

Prefolds (basically a square piece of cotton that is thicker down the middle) are the cheapest option, and they have worked great for us for 8 months. They are the simplest, and probably what you wore (Things start getting expensive when you go for the latest technology - "fitteds" and "pockets", which I only have a theoretical knowledge of). As far as I can tell, the only drawback to the prefolds is that they are somewhat more bulky and require two steps - diaper, and then cover.

We basically bought 36 cotton prefolds in each size, starting with the orange-trimmed newborn size (now we are on the red mediums, at month 8). and used about 4 diaper covers (NB, Small, then medium) at a time. We splurged on the organic cotton prefolds, so it came out to about $2.50 per diaper. Non-organic is more like $2. The covers are about $12 each, and you can just rinse them if they get pee on them, and re-use.

My only other tip is about detergent - you want a clean-rinsing detergent, because otherwise the diapers will develop buildup of soaps - they will become less absorbent and will start stinking of vinegar.

Anyway, check out the Green Mountain site for infinitely more details.

A service, as someone else mentioned, is another option if the price works for you. One person I know tried a service, but quit because she found that she was doing a ton of laundry anyway so she figured she might as well just wash the diapers too.