Easy: $20. That covers $10 for the domain name through GoDaddy or NameCheap, and $10 for your first month of hosting using HostGator's Baby Croc option. Don't use a cheaper option because BabyCroc lets you host unlimited (which really means about 30-50 in practice, depending how much traffic they get) sites for that price.

Other reasons to go with HostGator (and no, I don't have any financial interest in this recommendation):
  • 24 hour email support
  • 24 hour phone support
  • Very busy and well moderated forum
  • Sensible defaults for the cPanel and Fantastico software install options

Cheers,

Tom Campbell