Craisin

So after hearing about Demon's Souls (as a result of all the talk of Dark Souls on several recent podcasts), I finally decided to give this game a try. I'm enjoying the combat system (punishing, but highly logical), but am having some concerns... First off, I have started a couple classes now to see how they feel and have settled on a Wanderer, but have not gotten a full hour into one of the characters. What I keep finding is after gaining what seems like a good number of souls, I suddenly die in a VERY unfortunate place and die again on my way back to the souls (my last death was at the very base of the stair well down to the lever to open the gate early in 1-1 BEFORE pulling the lever, for example). Is there any way of knowing how many souls to acquire before starting to spend them? Is it better to spend early on leveling or on weapons?

Also, if I've put say 45 minutes into a character and lose ALL my souls without anything upgraded on my character, is it better to start the whole game over, or just start to grind for souls at the beginning of 1-1? Thanks for any tips y'all.