I really like Samartha's way of making a starter: no throwing out
anything.

The "usual" way of making a starter is throw out the half of previous one and then add flour and water.

Repeat several times and then you have your own active starter.

Just as mention here [1], you may toss out about 83% of flour to make a starter. Even though flour is cheap, you don't need to throw anything out and you can make a ~500g starter ready for making a sourdough bread by following Samartha's method [2].(step by step with photos)



This website also contains many useful information (with scientific spirit). I think it's good for the beginner. When your starter is ready, you can try to make a SF-style sourdough bread as shown [3].