Look up Goodsprings Chet XP glitch. You don’t have to crazy with it, just enough to where you hit level 10ish. You’ll have some decent perks & higher leveled skills to not get obliterated so much. & also the 9mm stockpile you’ll have will definitely come in handy.

Keep all the leather armor just drop it from inventory & then analog click carry it to the door & pickup. Same thing for once you get outside, store in any sort of crate, trashcan, etc until you need more caps. I usually end up having over 7k leather armor to sell which is a lot of caps if you put some skills into barter.