Test your idle voltage anyway, or have an autoparts store test it for you. Running on low voltage will quickly kill electronics and certainly batteries. A healthy system will have around 14v at idle. Anything in the 13s is perfectly adequate. Anything below 12.6 is incapable of fully recharging the battery, regardless of run time. Anything below 12v is going to be problematic for the rest of your electronics.
Money may be tight, and I recognize that you are prioritizing, but just want to point out that you'll cost yourself more in the long run if you accept low voltages.
Thats exactly why I turn to a place like this to keep me on track. That being said, I’ve been getting over 14v with the car running, so I think I’m ok. I even checked the amps with the meter between the battery and cables to check parasitic draw and there was none.
I’m hoping the battery was just toast and I’ll be good from here out.
I’m really leaning toward getting full length frame connectors installed as my first major upgrade..... just to make sure the car is solid before I do anything else. I’m not in a rush, and want to do things right, so figured this is a good place to start. Thoughts?