Help with first cable upgrade.

I wouldn’t get too carried away with interconnects an definitely not with power cords I would try amp first). If your system is a bit sterile… go with copper… if it about right silver coated copper… we’ll leave silver to really high end or very warm equipment.
I think DH Labs and WireWorld would be good places to start. These are well regarded (DH Labs for cost effective) highly reviewed and respected brands. At this stage I wouldn’t spend more than about 10% the value of the component you are putting them on… maybe 15% if you find something you like. The difference these things make gets bigger and bigger the better your equipment. Pretty quickly you can get to the point where the money spent would be better spent on a component upgrades.

Not true. Not at all. At the same time however considering the budget level of your system you will get more improvement for your money with a couple sets of Nobsound springs. Three sets for $90 will do your speakers, turntable, and CDP. This will be a lot bigger improvement than any $90 you can spend on wire.

You do however still want to do those wires. The smart way is to plan ahead. If you will just be doing this and then nothing - no component upgrades at all- for a long time that is one thing. In that case take what you can spend and divide it pretty much equally. So if say $500 and speaker cable, 2 power cords, 2 interconnects, then your budget is $100 each.

Or maybe you have bigger long term plans. Might be well worth it to put $500 into one really good set of speaker cables, knowing you will upgrade one thing after another so that a year or so from now the whole system is way better.

Either one is perfectly fine so long as you know and have a plan. Otherwise you listen to random knee-jerk ideas, real easy to find yourself having spent a lot with not all that much to show for it.

Not sure of what you consider "budget friendly", but if you are looking to enter the cable arena, I would check out The Cable Company website and see if they still have any of the Audience AU24 cables at 50% off.  They are older versions of the AU24 that come direct from Audience and are listed as "show samples".  The cables are light and easy to use, but IMO have very good body and bass weight and are not bright at all.  Plus, Audience is a great company for service.  Also, at half price, you would probably take very little if any loss if you decided to sell. Audience also makes a less expensive line called Conductor, but I've never heard them.  I don't think they're very popular for whatever reason. 

I also found the Canare wire cables to be decent affordable quality and a bit warmer sounding than some.  

I never tried Canare, but I do have a pair of 10 gauge Belden from Blue Jeans. In some situations they work absolutely fine, even in comparison to some much more expensive cables. But they have sounded absolutely terrible with some other component combinations I’ve tried and the "better" cables sounded much much better. So I do think it’s a good idea to start with Belden or Canare and see if they meet your expectations. It’s important to have a baseline for comparison so you will know whether it’s worth buying something more expensive. But they are not the end of the cable rainbow. I wish they were.