zero, home, offsets

Hey folks, new to CNC machining. Just got Y on my bridgeport
converted, X to complete tonight or tomorrow.

What I'd like to know is the proper, conventional way to
zero/home/offset the table.

What I am doing now (probably really wrong) is to manually jog
the table to some location, then G92 X0 Y0 and force it to zero.
I putter around a bit and want to pick another zero, offset by
a couple inches or whatever. "home" will just shift the displays
by an offset (base on readings before the first G92) so then I
have to do another G92 X0.

That's brutishly ugly. What's the conventional way to home a
machine (no home switches yet, can ballpark by eye though),
then zero in another place (like over the left rear edge of the vice)
and if I wanted to temporarilly offset to work outside the vice
(on the table 8" to the left for example)?

Since Gcodes allow like 9 coordinate systems I figure I am REALLY
doing this the hard/awkward/ugly way!
Any help greatly appreciated!

-d