The route I took (may not be the best), but I started looking at the php.net manual for the
basic syntax for PHP then after that looked further into the manual at some basic string functions and such. After I started to get a hang more on the way the code worked I started looking in free applications to see how it all worked and referring to the php manual where I got lost.
I waited till I had a fair understanding of php before I moved on to learning some MySQL, but way I started learning that was reading the documentation on the
MySQL site for a little assistance, but mainly used google for help in finding PHP/MySQL tutorials for basic then further to more complex applications.
Other things which I found useful are:
PHP Tutorial