I'm using the guide at
www.teachthai.com
A little cartoonish but its ok. Once I can read the characters and pronounce the tones correctly I should be able to pick up enough to be able to convey simple ideas.
I don't want to even start learning meanings with transliterations because they are all different and some are flatout wrong.
The best approach I can think of is to learn what the vowels look like and where each one of them is located in relation to the the starting consonants (in front, behind, on top, below) and then its a matter of what sound does the consonant make/what sound does the vowel make. It seems like a daunting task to memorize them since there are so many, so I will do it a few at a time.