In Desperate Need of Help with Understanding Student Finance

Hey everyone, as you know it's that time of the year where people start to sort out student finance. People keep banging on about it at college and on university forums, but I have one problem - I don't understand what to do!

I know this seems rather dumb, but I'm the first person in my family who is going to uni so my family is rather helpless with the situation and most of my friends aren't going to uni so I don't really have anyone close to me who can help. I've tried asking staff at college and what they tell me just confuses me or they act like it's the simplest thing in the world.

So, I've made my student finance account on the government website, but I haven't applied for anything yet. I'm planning on living at home if I get into either my first choice or insurance choice, which is the main thing that is confusing me about student finance. Do I still need a maintenance loan? I believe that every single person needs a tuition loan (correct me if I'm wrong) but I don't know about the rest of it. I've been told to apply for a maintenance loan so I can buy books and cover transport, but I will have £1000 - £2500 coming in per year from certain schemes and scholarships I'm eligible for, so is it worth it? Do I just need to take out a tuition loan? And how do I go about this? Please help!