...but somehow feel completely clueless how to go about it.

I know how to find AKC breeders, but I'm not looking for dogs on the gold standard. I have looked around at online inventories at adoption facilities, but I don't want to get an older dog, and a lot of them want $300+ adoption fees for pups (for good reasons, but if I'm gonna pay that much, I should get to pick one, you know?)

Is there some sort of useful resource for locating pups that normal people are selling/giving away, or do you just keep looking in the classifieds until you get lucky?

I know this is a dumb topic, but while I've been around dogs all my life, I've never been involved in locating/purchasing one. For the love of dogs, please help!