stupid question about struts/bushings

[Chaotic_Warlord]

as the title implies, it's a stupid question but please help me out. I have an S14, have awful bump steer issues, if I am driving along at normal highway speeds (55+ mph) and the road surface gets rough or uneven or if I drive across a bump or bridge joint the rear end gets squirrely and feels like it wants to let go out from under me. It's very disconcerting and I know it's caused by either bad bushings (they're the oem ones from the factory and I live in NE Philly so they've suffered through 15 years of road salt and rough winters.), or it could be blown struts, again oem from the factory. My question is this, what are the different symptoms of each problem, both cause bump steer, but the car doesn't bottom out or bounce, and if I push down on the car there is little to no suspension travel. the struts don't appear to be leaking so I don't know if they are actually blown or not.

I'm on a very tight budget, and while I would like to get coilovers, I just can't afford them or even new struts, I can however scratch up the money for new bushings, and plan to do the solid aluminum ones since they are the same price as the poly's and I won't have to replace them again, problem is if I do get them and put them on and I do have blown struts will it cause the bump steer problem to get worse?

So again what are the individual symptoms of blown struts and dead bushings? How can I tell if my struts are really shot or if it is in fact just the bushings I need to replace.

[EnjoiNismo]

Check your toe rod end bushings, if its REALLY bad bump steer. That causes a lot of it.
Are your tires good?

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Yeah, tires are fairly new. Thanks for the info, I'll check them too.