In the past, I have been vaguely intimidated by the thought of cooking beans from scratch. There's always the admonition to spread them out somewhere and look for stones or other weird things that got mixed in. Then there are complicated instructions about how to soak them, for many how many hours, overnight or not, whether or not to throw away the soaking water as it is said to reduce whatever it is that causes flatulence from beans, and instructions to buy an imported clay pot in which to cook them.
It probably is a good idea to see if there are any obvious stones though I have never seen one in my beans. I think it's easiest to just cook up a pound of beans as you could use them a few times during a week's worth of meals. They are tasty, inexpensive, versatile, and healthy — depending of course on what is served with them.