Pricing issues

I've searched tutorials and support forum and can't find the answer or even that anyone else is having this issue.
I'm selling bracelets online that can be made into 1 strand, 2 strands, etc. 1 strand is $5 (for example), 2 strands is $10, etc. I want to show that prices start at $5 so I've added that into the product information but when I set up attributes with a dropdown for:
1 strand $5
2 strands $10
3 strands $15
when testing the shopping cart 3 strands is priced at $20. The base price is being added into the price.
I've removed the + sign with no effect. I've checked No on all the options with no effect. I don't know what else to try and this seems like such an obvious thing.

By the sounds of it the base price should be $0.

But if I make the base price $0, then $0 is what will show up in the description as "Price starting at $0". Right?

If you have your Products marked as Priced by Attribute and the Attributes marked:
Include in Base Price
When Priced by Attributes YES

then you will see the lowest Attribute price combination as the displayed Price for the Product ...

Ajeh - tried your suggestion and still did not work. Base price is adding to the attribute price.

Possibly looking at the website and a particular product might be of help. Note: the strand prices is what is causing my problem. I want the customer to be able to see what the cost is going to be for each bracelet strand. But also notice on the length, that an additional $12 is added to lengths longer than 8 inches so I need to be able to add that price to the cost of each strand.
http://74.220.204.53/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_4&products_id=1

If the Product has the Price of $83.97 ... then this is not Priced by Attribute ...

The Attributes just need to hold their individual Prices and when added to the Cart, such as:
Product Price $83.97
9" strand: $12.00
1 Strand: $83.97

for a price of: $179.94

The 5" would be:
Product Price $83.97
5" strand: $0.00
1 Strand: $83.97

for a price of: $167.94

Then how do I handle the Product Price Manager information? If I enter no amount in the price, then the "prices starting at..." is $0.

I re-read your reply and I'm not sure you are understanding the pricing. The purchase price is based on the number of strands. 1 strand costs $83.97. If additional length is needed, then there is an additional charge of $12.00. So the pricing is:
1 strand: $83.97
Extra length: $12.00
Total: $95.97

The only other option I'm coming up with is to leave the base price as $83.97. Leave price of 1 strand at 0. Price of 2 strands would be +$83.97 (making the cost of 2 strands $167.94) but that is completely confusing to the customer.

Try marking the Product as Priced by Attribute and set the Product Price to 0.00 ...

Make sure that the Attributes are marked as
Include in Base Price YES

I finally have this issue resolved.

I set the product price to 0.
In the Price Manager, I checked Yes for the "Priced by Attribute" (Display price will include lowest group attributes plus price".
On the Attributes Controller, I checked Yes for "Include in Base Price when Priced by Attributes". And price has to be entered for each strand.

Never did figure out the difference between the Price Manager and the Attributes Controller options....seems like they are saying the same thing, but I guess whatever it takes to get it to work.

I did have some products that didn't seem to want to price correctly but was able to copy attributes from the products that did price correctly.