Read: Double Your Dating and The Game (Neil Strauss)
Watch/Listen to Real Social Dynamics: Foundations. All are available on the Bay.
I'm no pickup artistdouche. I've met some of those guys who form an identity around being a PUA and almost all of them are fucking losers- calling women "targets" and throwing their convoluted PUA jargon around (DHV, IOI, AMOG, etc.). But there are good things you can learn from the PUA community in terms of inner game, strategy and tactics - e.g. pull-push, cold reading, the cube, negs, teasing / cocky funny. That stuff can be useful and I still use a lot of it. But know when to stop reading. Be wary the pitfall of becoming a tactic nerd and wanting to arm yourself with dozens of routines and techniques - that shit
will fuck up your inner game. Use tactics and routines as a
spice, not the main course.
Be like Bruce Lee - apply what's
useful from there and discard what is not. Just like on wickedfire, there's some very good advice to be found in the PUA community and some very bad. You'll have to test stuff out to figure out what works for you.
The first thing you have to do is get your inner game issues straightened out. Protip: women are attracted to men who have higher
value than them. So if were you I'd stop buying shit for women. It communicates that you put a higher value on women than yourself. When you put pussy on a pedestal it will elude you. You have to create and constantly reconnect with the belief that you are the shit (learning a little NLP is good for this). Another important thing you have to get into your belief system: women WANT sex. You don't have to convince them to want it. Just fucking deliver.
In terms of outer game FFS, for now, just learn to open. 90% of guys don't fucking approach. In terms of the sheer numbers as long as you aren't weird, hideous, and have basic social skills, if you learn to open, you'll get laid simply because you showed up to play the game and no one else did. There is tons of material on opening and lots of different theories on how to go about it - my best advice is find a strategy that you can be congruent with. For example, if you got the opinion opener route, have a sincere interest in women's opinion on what you're asking them. This will always work better for you than finding opinion openers on the internet and just barfing them at chicks.
Touch early and often. It communicates dominance which gets pussy wets. Get comfortable with casually touching arms when you are in conversation. If you don't touch early and often, its going to be weird you try to physically escalate later. If she's already used to you touching her, its going to go a lot smoother. Poke, tickle, playfully push away, fix her hair, learn to give hand massages. Sack up and do it.
One concerning thing you said is that you are spending a month buying women drinks. I'm not a hardline "don't buy drinks for bitches you haven't fucked" guy, but I make sure I don't do anything for a woman I want to bone that I wouldn't do for a guy friend. e.g. I'd buy my buddy a beer, so I'll buy a chick a beer. But under normal circumstances I wouldn't buy my buddy his drinks for an entire night, so I don't do that shit for a chicks either. If I haven't banged her yet its
just hanging out. Dating is for chicks I'm already banging. "Hey so I'm going to go hit up Lucky's for Happy Hour tomorrow. You should come hang out."
Now there are guys who can buy drinks for women without sub-communicating low value - buying drinks in and of itself isn't the issue. But to be that guy you need to have solid inner game which it sounds like you do not. So for now I'd drop the buying drinks shit. Focus on communicating slightly higher value than the women you interact with: tease them, treat them like you would a bratty little sister, be cocky & funny. But you have to know when to turn that stuff off and form a real connection with someone. No one likes a clown.
For support you can get people's feedback and help on sticking points on
Fast Seduction 101 - Pick Up Artist Forum - PUA Training - but again, I'd be wary of becoming someone who spends too much time on that forum. Then again, if you spent more time on that forum we'd have to tolerate less of your incessant trolling on this one.
One final warning, this stuff will radically change your belief system. Its one of those blue pill / red pill choices. 6 years ago I wanted to live the normal get married and have kids lifestyle. After learning that shit, I have difficulty seeing how marriage is ever going to be a possibility for me. Learning PUA shit and evolutionary psychology will destroy any Disney concept of love that you have. It will get you laid more but there's danger of it turning you very misogynistic and you can't really ever put the toothpaste back in the tube. Make sure that if you go down that road, commit to it being a piece of a bigger picture which enriches your personal integrity (meaning wholeness not "moral integrity").
I really need to get into this niche. Its apparent I enjoy writing about it.