I do mine the old fashioned way, kill stuff, loot stuff and sell stuff to vendors.
Riverwood has a general goods and a blacksmith.
Whiterun has general goods, keep wizard, fletcher, and the blacksmith (which has 2 vendors).
Most of them have a daily allowance of like 750 without factoring in perks, and the two whiterun blacksmith vendors have 1000 or 1100 IIRC. Talk to everybody in Riverwood and Whiterun, especially the innkeepers. Ask the innkeeper multiple times about rumors in the area and then ask them for work to get the bounty notes from the Jarl. If this is your first time playing the Innkeeper gives you the bounty letter, uncovers the location on your map of the camp/area. When asked about rumors they may uncover dragon/shout locations "discover source of power at location X". It beats wandering around looking for the stuff. Off the top of my head here are some of the quests i can think of:
-Once Raluf or Hadvar cut your binds loot every weapon, every piece of armor and every potion you see until you exit the keep
-loot ingredients if you want, i say dont loot food
-faendal or sven (not really for gold, just to have a follower)
-riverwood innkeeper > rumors and work
-talk to blacksmith sell him any armor or weapons you or your follower dont need
-talk to general goods get golden claw mission, sell anything to him that the blacksmith wouldnt buy
-Whiterun
-blacksmiths sell anything that you couldnt sell at riverwood
-Ysolda > mammoth tusk
-Carlotta > sends you to talk to Mikael
-Whiterun innkeeper > rumors and work
-talk to Mikael
-talk to female elf in corner and brawl her for 100g
-talk to companions in Jorvaskr, eventually you get a job from one of their leaders
-while you walk around Whiterun pass close to guards so they talk to you...sometimes they will warn you of areas with bandit activity IE "bandits have been seen in a cave SE of town" and then it will update your map and mark it
-dragonsreach > Jarl > wizard > quest to get dragonstone at bleak falls barrow
You should now have a bunch of stuff marked off on your map. Bandit camps that you can clear out, loot and sell to vendors. Dont forget that once you have a bunch of stuff you can trade it to your follower so they can haul it around for you. If you are getting close to your carry limit and you dont want to make an extra trip you can do what i do. When comparing pieces of gear look at the items weight to vendor gold ratio. If you have to choose between one hunting bow that weighs 7 and sells for 50 and three iron daggers that weight 6 total and sell for 30 total which do you take? Do you take that one iron chest armor that weighs 30 and sells for 125? or do you take 5 imperial light chest armor that weighs 30 total and sells for 375 total? Imperial light boots 2lbs for 15 gold or fur boots 2lbs for 5 gold? You get the idea i'm sure. You dont have to bust out a slide rule or calculator to figure it out just figure it out in your head.