Suz:

Your costs can vary greatly by what you choose:

Gas - Currently is $3.50 a gallon. Rental cars get about 20 miles to the gallong (higher when on long trips but possibly less when idling in city traffic. Calculate your miles. Multiply by a "get lost factor of 1.1" and divide by 20. Do not buy gas from the rental car company!

Food and beer depends on the location. You can get a fast food meal for $4-7 but it may qualify as junk. A sit down meal in a restaurant might be $8-$20 for a casual place or pushing $50 for something nice. To give you an idea, the rate that government employees are reimbursed for their meals while on the road is $44 a day for the section of the country where you will be visiting.For that amount you can eat well but you won't post pictures of yourself eating at a critically reviewed restaurant.

If you are on a budget here are some tips:
1. Trying typing in your location to a site such as yelp to find nearby restaurants and how they are rated. Ratings are usually low brow but they can help you identify gems that locals know.

2. Learn to love barbeque. It is true southern food and not too pricey. We may convert you to the point you are smuggling home sauce. Concerned about fat? Try smoked chicken rather than pulled pork BBQ.

3. Consider ordering tap water with meals. It is safe and you won't get looked at funny. In fact your server will probably ask if you prefer a lemon in your water.

4. Split entrees if they look huge or order off the appetizer menu.

5. Buy prepared food at a grocery store. Most have deli counters. You probably can pick up a whole rotisserre chicken and a bag of salad mix for $10, plenty for two meals and sandwiches the next day if you have a fridge. You may choose to buy beer there as well to save at restaurants. Take the same precautions as you would at home about avoidign drinking and driving and be prepared for two southern traditions.

a) Open container laws. It may not be lawful for you to walk around outside with an open beer.
b) Blue Laws- In many smaller cities in the South it is not possible to buy alcohol on Sunday. I'm sure you will be OK in the cities you have listed.

Lastly football. Our football season is late August to November. During March colleges may have a spring training day that is open to the public. Generally those are free or cheap but it isn't the same thing as a real game. No big crowds, no bands. No half-time shows. You will need to look up the schools on your route. For example look up Vanderbilt for Nashville and google football.

That's brilliant thank you so much! Great tips! Thanks again.

A few small points. Palmettoprincess has given excellent advice.

Small, cheap ice chests are available at Walmart, Kmart, Target and many other stores. Ice is ubiquitously available at 7-11 stores and gas stations. Having ice means cold drinks in the car for half the price of drink machines, takeaway food for more than one day, etc. When you fly home, you can give the chest away. The cost will be trivial spread over your trip. By the way, it is considered tacky (chav) to fill your chest from the ice machine at your lodging, though you can top it up a bit.

In New Orleans, not only can you carry a drink openly on the street, there are open air bars that will sell you takeaway drinks.

I assume you don't plan to carry your funds in cash. You can use your bank card in an automated teller-cash point-bancomat. Find out from your bank in Ireland which ones are free to you, and never use the free standing ones in shops or gas stations as they impose ridiculous charges. Even if you have to pay a fee, bank ATMs will be much cheaper.

It is not a good idea to wave around large amounts of cash in strange cities or small towns.

To get from where you will be to NO is easy crossing the Ponchartrain Causeway. It will be all the Lake Ponchartrain you will ever want to see.

You need very little cash - but should use your credit cards wherever possible and pull cash from ATMs when you need walking around money.

If you're asking for your total expenses - prices for most things will be less than you're used to.

You can probably buy your ownstuff in supermarkets and try to eat healthy food. Sadly, many of the fast food places do focus on high fat, high sugar foods

Be very careful about "sweet tea"- you think you are getting iced tea but it's actually sugar water. Either drink plain water or make sure any iced tea you order does not have sugar in it. You can add a little if you want - but "sweet tea" is incredibly sweet.

Hi Suzieabroad, thanks for the question on my forum, i THINK i may have answered your question but dont hold me on that
I see you're going in March where we're going in October so pleeeease let me know how it goes, any tips (and good pubs) will be gratefully appreciated. Did you come up with a final budget in the end??

Hi Marty, Palmettoprincess, Ackislander and Nytraveler, thanks for your comments. This is the first time I've posted a question on one of these sites and am so pleased with the response. Sounds like a eighty dollars a day should cover food, petrol and fun. Am getting v excited now only a week and a half to go!
I will be back with recommendations of my own!

Enjoy your trip Suzieabroad, look forward to hearing your experiences.

Ps if you find a decent pint of Guinness out there be sure to let me know where it is