There are two ways to handle this - throttle (execute the function with a set interval) and debounce (execute the function after the specified time has passed since the last call). You'll probably want to use throttling in your situation.

A simplified solution may look something like this (Updated: see it at http://jsfiddle.net/yVVNU/1/):

    window.onscroll=catchScroll;
    var timeOutId = 0;
    var jitterBuffer = 200;
    function catchScroll()
        {
            if (timeOutId) clearTimeout (timeOutId);
            timeOutId = setTimeout(function(){SaveScrollLocation()}, jitterBuffer);
        }

    function SaveScrollLocation () {
        console.log(document.documentElement.scrollTop);
        alert('scrolled');
    }

You can also use this jQuery plugin: http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-throttle-debounce-plugin/