Travel the USA with $1000 or Less

Have you ever wanted to just jump in a car and go? With no destination in mind, just to get lost in order to find yourself. 

My whole life I had this dream of taking a road trip across the United States to do exactly that. To get lost on unknown streets and come across some of the most beautiful places our country has to offer.

The summer of 2015 is when I got my chance. I graduated from college, packed my bags with Shane and we both jumped in my Mustang and drove into the unknown. It was the most adventurous and daring thing I had ever done, and my new dream is to do it all over again.

If this sounds like you and your dream, but you are concerned about your financial situation, keep reading. That’s exactly what I felt back then, too. IT IS POSSIBLE. It was possible for me – unemployed and a post graduate with not much money in the savings account. I want to tell people like you, that you can achieve your dream of travel. It just takes some planning on your part.

We kept to a strict budget while on the trip. We knew we would have to pay for gas, hotels, and food and we were pretty good about finding cheap places on the fly. We did all of this in 5 weeks.

We proved that you can drive across the United States and back with $1000 or less for gas. This price doesn’t necessarily include food and hotels unless you keep to an even stricter budget than we did – which is easily possible. When we returned back to Pennsylvania after 5 weeks of being gone, I calculated all of our gas receipts that we kept from every gas station we stopped at. Sure enough, the price we spent for gas was $902.56!

That’s right, our gas came to $902.56 for the entire 5 weeks! 

This price included every back road we took (that we didn’t have to) and every wrong turn we made.

Keep scrolling to find some tips to see how you can travel the United States for $1000 or less!

Accomodations

I’m not going to lie, some of our hotels were not the best – stained carpets and sheets, torn curtains, loud neighbors, creaky and warped beds. However, we stayed in some really great hotels. Yes, most were outdated and old, but it was a comfortable and safe place to sleep. At the end of the day, that’s all we wanted.

We were also lucky we knew people in different states to stay with, because this certainly helped in not spending as much money. You can also find deals on Couch Surfing or House Sitting if you are looking for other alternatives.

Camping was another way we saved money because we found places that were $20 max and it gave us a place to sleep and a nice shower before driving to the next place. You may not get the best nights sleep, but the experience makes it all worth it. Right?

Food

When it came to food, this is where it became difficult. We did a lot of drive through’s mainly because it was cheap and we didn’t want to stop somewhere. We wanted to eat while we drove. However, we did pack a cooler in the back of the car which kept drinks, snacks, and perishables fresh. This was nice because we could grab them at any time and didn’t have to stop somewhere and spend more money. We packed this cooler before we left for the trip and restocked it only when needed. Read how we packed everything we needed in the Mustang for our 5 week road trip here: Packed in a Mustang for 5 Weeks

Gas

Take this as your warning: Do not keep driving until you find a cheaper gas station – this will only hurt you. We made this mistake when driving down Route 66. It was hours and hundreds of miles between gas stations that we ended up coasting to a gas station on fumes because we thought we could make it there comfortably. It’s important that you grab gas when you can! When it comes to gas, having some is more important than saving money. Sorry to say, but it’s the truth.

We filled up no matter the price because of this reason. We would drive for hours not knowing when the next gas station would come along. When all was said and done, our gas price came to $902.56. This included all the detours we took, the back tracking to see things we missed, and the wrong turns we made. If you have your route mapped out to the T, you can easily drive all over the US with less than $1000. It’s possible!

Good luck. Be sure to comment below.
We look forward to hearing about your adventures.

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