Not surprisingly, driving across the country costs a lot of money! We took I-40 from D.C. to Los Angeles, which is probably the most direct (toll road free) route you can take.
Knowing that we slept in hotels every night and that we traveled for 6 days… any guesses on what our grand total was?
Here’s the breakdown:
$ 411.75 Lodging
$ 251.51 Food
$ 360.32 Gas
$ 72.00 Tourist Attractions/ Nat’l Parks
$ 22.73 Other
$ 1,118.31 Total
Wow! We had to pay all that expense out of pocket, but luckily most all of it qualified as reimbursable relocation expenses for my new job. If this trip wasn’t going to be re-imbursed, we would have definitely cut down on our lodging and food expenses. As for gas, we typically averaged 36 mpg. For extras, both the Natural Bridge and the Meteor Crater cost us $15+ per person, but we felt both sites were well worth the cost.
A good friend of ours recently completed a road trip, and she saved money by using national parks as both a fun destination as well as a campsite. We learned that a lot of national parks will let you camp for free or a small fee (if you request a permit to do so). Creative, right?
Has anyone else completed a cross-country road trip? How much did it cost you?
I'm in my 20's and trying my best to master life, career, and finances. Taking a leap of faith, I just moved cross country from Washington D.C. to LA, far away from family but living with my fiance for the first time ever! Follow me as I blog about young money, combining finances, and making ends meet on a budget in the city. 
In Budgets We Trust 
That’s great that everything will be reimbursed! I once moved from CO to Boston, so it was sort of a cross-country trip, but I don’t remember how much it cost. Although, it was back when gas wasn’t so ridiculously expensive, so I know it was less than this. What types of things did you do along the way?
The trip was a blast. We made several small detours just off the highway. I think my favorites from the trip were the Natural Bridge (VA), Cadillac Ranch (TX), Petrified Forest (AZ), and Las Vegas (NV) to visit grandma. We blogged photos and updates the whole way so our family and friends could track our journey. It was an added incentive to enjoy the trip and do something interesting to blog about!
We figure when we move back east, we want to take a more northerly route passing through Colorado. Did you have any favorite stops from your road trip to Boston?
Suh-weeeeet! That was already pretty cheap for a weeklong roadtrip and eating out/lodging. Not bad, not bad. BF and I take a ton of roadtrips since my family lives up north – 8 hours north of San Diego. My dad lives in LA and he also has a place in Sacramento. We usually only do daytrip roadtrips but nonetheless they are tiresome and boring once you memorize the entire freeway and everything else. We like to stop in San Luis Obispo since that’s where went to college and we miss the food dearly (it’s about 5 hours north of SD and 3 hours south of my hometown).
That’s not bad at all! And that’s great that you’re going to be reimbursed. Sounds like a pretty fun adventure. I moved cross-country with my family when I was 13 so I don’t know much about the finances but I do know it took us 3 days to drive. We stayed at places like Motel 6 from about 11pm-6am and then the rest of the time, we were on the road.