Near some universities, a car is a virtual necessity. However, you can minimize your spending on your vehicle and commute by making judicious choices both in your initial purchase and ongoing usage.

Purchasing a Car

An ideal frugal vehicle would have a low purchase price (with no debt) and be fuel-efficient, reliable, and inexpensive to maintain and repair. Because this is such a financially impactful purchase, you should devote significant time and energy to researching the vehicle you want to buy and where to buy it from.

Private sales are generally less expensive than dealer sales, though they may not include a warrantee or previous inspections. You should have a mechanic check over a private sale vehicle before you purchase it.

New cars lose an enormous fraction of their value in the first year of ownership. A better value is to buy a car that is at least a few years old, but has been well maintained. The common wisdom is that driving a car “into the ground” (until it is no long usable) after purchase maximizes the value you can get out of the car.

Further reading: Used Cars Are Not Money Pits. New Cars Are., Why Buy a Used Car? , Ditching the Car Loan – My $10,000 Liability

Financing a car not only causes you to pay interest over the life of the loan but, like any other kind of debt, can also enable you to overbuy. If possible, buy a car with cash. If that’s not possible, think about the total price you will pay to own the car, not just the monthly payment amount.

Fuel

To reduce your fuel spending, expend less fuel or buy your fuel at lower prices. If you are not willing to buy a car with better gas mileage, you can practice hypermiling to increase your gas mileage in any vehicle, or simply reduce the amount you drive by substituting lower-cost transit methods. Keeping your car well maintained should also minimize your fuel usage; tire pressure, for example, has a large impact on fuel efficiency. There are now many apps available such as Gas Buddy to help you find the best gas prices nearby.

Further reading: How to Maximize Your Vehicle’s Fuel Economy; Reducing My Commute Will Fund My Retirement: 10 Ways You Can Save at the Pump!; Hypermiling: Expert Driving to Save 25% on Gas

Insurance

To reduce your spending on car insurance, buy only as much insurance coverage as you need. For example, you can raise your deductible if you have savings on hand to meet it. You may not be required to maintain comprehensive coverage if you own your car outright. However, carefully consider the possible consequences of reducing your insurance coverage and make sure that you have the savings to cover the potential downside.

Compare prices across multiple insurance providers to find the best price, including bundling services. Be sure to ask about all available discounts offered by your insurance company, such as those for being a good student or having a clean driving record. To lower your insurance cost, you can own a less expensive and/or safer vehicle, drive fewer miles per year, install a driving monitoring device, and pay for multiple months of coverage at once.

Further reading: 15 Tactics to Lower Your Car Insurance by Thinking Like an Insurance Agent; Lower Your Auto Insurance Premium

No matter how car-dependent a town seems, there are always people who live there without owning their own cars. If you are evaluating whether to buy or bring a car to grad school, seek the counsel of first-year international students. Many are not able to buy cars when they first arrive in the US, and by talking with a few students you can see whether the no-car lifestyle is attractive to you in terms of where you would need to live and shop. Even if you own a car, you can minimize your ongoing expenses by commuting by another method and using your car infrequently.

Carpooling

One of the advantages of living with a roommate who attends your university or in a housing complex with many students is that you have great potential carpooling companions. You might be the primary driver or split the driving evenly if you own a car, or you could suggest a carpooling arrangement to a neighbor who shares your schedule. A periodic or informal arrangement will help you spend less on gas and a formalized commitment can result in you paying for less gas and only a fraction of a parking permit. Carpooling can also be easily be combined with any of the below methods, such as hitching an occasional ride when the weather is bad. With carpooling, you have most of the conveniences of driving, such as a fast commute and being protected from the elements, but you will have to take one or more other people’s schedules into account.

Public Transportation

Depending on your city and the length of your commute, using public transport for your commute might be a viable option. Look into whether your university offers discounted rail or bus passes for its students and whether buying a bulk pass will be cheaper than individual fares. Your university bus system may pick up for near/on-campus transportation where the public transportation leaves off. One of the advantages to public transport is that you may be able to work while riding the train or bus, but a common drawback is a longer commute. Be careful that your cost for using public transit does not grow larger than the ownership of an inexpensive car, if your primary reason for using this method is cost savings.

Biking/Walking

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Biking or walking to work is likely to be a wonderful synergy of physical exercise, sustainable living, and frugality, but also depends heavily on the bike- and pedestrian-friendliness of your city and university. You must carefully choose where you live to make walking feasible and examine the routes to your university before committing to biking. Don’t forget to have a plan for any changes you may want to make to your commute after dark or in adverse weather conditions. Biking for your commute will require a monetary investment in a bicycle and appropriate clothing and there will be some ongoing maintenance costs, but these are virtually always much lower than the comparable cost for a car.

Further reading: Greening Your Commute, Get Rich with… Bikes

Working Remotely

Depending on the nature of your research and the disposition of your advisor, working from home some of the time may be an option. The money that you end up not spending on commuting costs is likely to be slightly offset by increased power usage at home. Even if you have the option to work from home, you may find that working at your university is advantageous for productivity or social reasons, but you should try out both options to see what works best for you and how much less money you spend when you work remotely.