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For some very rough guestimates on costs, let's say that 3 months is 100 days - making a nice round figure.

Lodging: If you do a mix of low cost motels and camping, you can get by on about $50/day for a total trip expenditure of $5000.

Food: Let's say that you scrimp and eat mostly out of a cooler with the occasional splurge for a sit down, restaurant meal. Call it $15/day/person for a total of $4500.

Car: You shop for a deal and find a rental for ~$200/week for 13 weeks, so $2500. But wait - you're all under 24, so add $25/day/driver for an additional $7500. Yes, you can buy a car and hope to sell it at the end of your trip, or even use one of the companies that guarantee to buy back at the end, but you'll have to put up at least $6000 at the start of your trip to get a car that will hold up to three months on the road.

Gas: Let's guess that you're going to drive 200 miles a day (on average) and that your car gets 20 miles to the gallon gas doesn't rise above $3/gal (cheap by your standards). That's another $3000.

So if you rent a car, keep the miles down, sleep and eat on the cheap, you're looking at a ballpark figure of around $15,000 to $21,000. depending in large measure on what your car hire company decides to do about your age. So.... you're $18,000 is just getting to the realm of possible.

Now you need to do a bit of homework. For starters, here are some general tips on travelling on a budget. For some of the ins, outs, and difficulties of buying and selling a car as a foreign national, start with this post and follow the other links therein. Note that one big advantage to renting is that any maintenance issues are the responsibility of the rental company. finally, don't worry about what is the most popular route, but think about what you want to see. Get a map of the US and start marking off where those places are. With 3 months you can see quite a lot as long as you do it efficiently.

AZBuck