Manually editing a cell from a drop down list without effecting VLOOKUP values

Hi,
My invoices use a drop down list of items (using data validation) connected to prices. Using VLOOKUP to get the corresponding prices. Item is in Column A, Price in Column B (on both invoice and worksheet of original source list).
Example: Potato = R500

Sometimes I need to edit the item on the invoice - for example edit "Potato" to "Potato Head". As soon as I do this the price returns #NA

Is there an easy way to be able to edit the cell in the drop down list so "Potato Head" will still return the same price value as the unedited "Potato"?
I have 200 items with matching prices - mission to start breaking down these descriptions and using sub-lists - as prices also change depending on client. Don't want accounting package - love Excel too much.

Is there a formula that can "copy formula but paste as number" as opposed to doing it through the mouse & menus? (So it can carry the formula down in a table automatically).

Hope this makes sense to someone?
SV

Thanks. Not really wanting to create a macro or having to go through menus - just a simple formula.

Was thinking of putting the VLOOKUP formula value of price in a separate column and then equaling that column to my Column B prices? If that makes sense?
"Copy & paste as number" but in a formula.

I'll continue to follow this thread to see how it turns out. Please keep us updated ... your solution will be a good resource for all.

Am I asking the impossible?
:-/

Thanks so much. I will send sample when I get a chance. For now I'm just too busy... I will soon as I am really keen to find an easy, non-macro based solution.

Glen, you knew exactly what I was needing. (I'm not the greatest at explaining things...)

I had to play with your formula a bit as my items are many worded - with the constant addition of more words for any given item...
My source list file is "List_Details", @Description is the first column on my invoice table.

=IFERROR(INDEX(List_Details.xlsx!Unit_Price,MATCH(IFERROR(LEFT([@Description],-1),[@Description]),List_Details.xlsx!Details,10)),"")

This works perfectly!
I changed the "0" at the end to 10 to accommodate for more wording.
Also, out of interest, when I originally copied your formula I misspelled "find" (it was late I was tired - I typed "fine" by mistake). And yet the formula still worked. When I corrected it to "Find" the returns went haywire...
So I tried taking the Find option out of the formula and it works amazingly!

Thank you so much for your very valuable assistance!

SV

Thanks everyone for your time & suggestions.
Glenn's formula (with my few tweaks) seems to be doing the trick well.