Hi Frostg!ant!
To save - save outside the town gates. You cannot save inside the town.
Are you playing with the patch installed?
Do you dislike or like using cheats? (check out the Best Tips thread for some $ advice - some legit, some cheats).
Items that are all similar you should try to have in the inventory of 1 character - you might get away with only having to identify 1 of the items then rather than each individually. (You probably have a LOT of rusty swords!
)
Most of the stuff you get early in the game is junk and really not worth identifying - you could save your game, identify a few and see if any of them are worth while - then restore your game remembering which items you do want to identify.
Hope that helps!
Wyv