Introduction
In Hampton Roads, as in other settings where urban and suburban settings are present, transportation needs can vary substantially. For instance, I once rented out a room to a disabled man while I was still a bachelor (my wife never wants to rent out rooms) where I let him use my bike (that is not something that I'm offering to the public). With him not having a job, Walmart being 1.6 miles walk or bike away, & some other places like Walgreens, gas stations, & restaurants being even closer, he was able to cut down his expenses by not having a car & just using my bike for transportation when I wasn't using it for exercise. When considering the options, for yourself, Google Maps is an excellent resource. It can show you how far a bike ride or walk would be, how far/long a car ride would take, as well as options for mass transit. The higher the population density, the more mass transit options you'll find.
Mass Transit/Bike
If going the mass transit route, complimenting that approach with a bike can be particularly helpful if mass transit in your route to work & elsewhere allows for bikes. If biking, I recommend wearing flashy clothes; my former roommate was once hit by a car on a >$5k bike despite the many precautions he took & was injured in the process. Also if biking, if you are going from a desire to be frugal without being limited by low income, consider a Twicycle if you'd like a better workout. If doing any biking, stretching your hamstrings daily & properly is a must. After a time when I did more biking than usual, I grossly tore both of my hamstrings while sprinting. They turned black & it was the worst case the nurse had ever seen. It took me years to fully recover & if you tear them once, you will be more prone to tears for the rest of your life. Be sure to wear a helmet & consider lights in inclement weather & dark conditions as well. A moped is also an option to consider as is supplementing mass transit with Uber or Lyft. Google Maps seems to be best when considering bussing for a short distance. When considering busses long distance, Megabus, Greyhound, Google Maps, & GoToBus seem to be the best options for finding the cheapest routes. You can get from Hampton or Newport News to New York City for as cheap as $45 round trip, & I have gone there for around that cheap by bus before (as well as flying for points, which I will get to in the "unconventional options" section). If looking for a bike or moped, I suggest checking Craigslist.
Car
If you are looking to buy a car, I recommend an older, <150,000 mile, high MPG vehicle. I once purchased a <150,000 mile Nissan Maxima that was about 20 years old for $600, & I felt it was a great purchase overall despite the issues that it had. I have heard some say that they can't afford $600, but keep in mind that some credit cards have sign-up bonuses, most often with initial spending requirements, worth that or more, as I have gotten on many occasions in that past. If you have good credit, ask me for recommendations for a high cash sign up bonus. Also, if you can't afford that, I recommend free budget councilling so that you can adjust your budget in such a way where you are able to build savings so that a purchase like that seems less daunting. Keep in mind that individuals and dealers are often willing to haggle with you. Also keep in mind that sometimes you can get more money than your insurance company initially wants to give you. For my wife's recent car purchase in the past 6 months at the time of this writing, we haggled with both the dealer and the insurance company, & it paid off for us in both cases. For extremely cheap cars like that or ones that you total (like I once did to a car when the engine locked), keep in mind that you can often get between $200-$300 for them from the junkyard, especially if you can transport it there yourself, which I once did for closer to $300. When considering your options, I recommend looking at some of the top 15 most reliable brands. I also recommend checking ratings/reviews on the specific model for the year that you are considering purchasing. The newer your car, the higher the depreciation rate. With my current car, it was the newest car that I had ever owned, & after looking at how fast it depreciated, I hope to never make that mistake again unless in very unusual circumstances. Whatever transportation method you have, I recommend paying cash if at all possible, even if the vehicle that you pick isn't exactly what you want. The only exception for my recommendation to buy in cash is if you are offered a 0% APR rate for a few years and you pay on a monthly basis in a way where you will pay it off before the 0% APR period expires. Many dealerships won't let you pay with a credit card, but if you find a place or individual that accepts a credit card payment, if you can pay it off immediately, and are not charged an extra fee for using the credit card, you might want to consider it. Even if you are charged a 3% fee, if you would be achieving a higher amount than that with a sign-up bonus, it might still be worth it. If buying a > 10-year-old car, you haven't caused a wreck before, & you have good health insurance as well as the ability to buy another car if something happens to the one you have, you might want to consider liability coverage only, & if you don't get in wrecks often, a high deductible can lower your monthly premium.
Unconventional Options
There are plenty of free and assisted options for transportation here such as to and from work, especially if you are on Medicaid. It was the first non-ad result I found after Googling "free transportation hampton VA."
I have heard that some shelters give away bus passes, and also look for discounted rates for the disabled and elderly.
ride-sharing - a number of possibilities, including paying to share a ride as well as alternating who is driving.
car relocating - Free or almost free one-way rental cars & campervans mostly for 1 time long distance travel and no options from VA at the time of this writing with the limited research I did. While no options from VA, it would be a way to reduce costs, for instance, if you wanted to get to the West Coast, you could find a bus to a location nearer than that with this website that is going to the West Coast, then drive the rest of the way, couchsurfing along the way.
Hitchhiking - while I personally have never stuck my thumb out or made a sign to solicit rides, I have taken rides from complete strangers at times. I once decided to skip out on my ride from Lynchburg to Hampton Roads purposefully and began walking there. A 187 mile journey in normal driving was done in 3 days with this method. On the way, a number of people, from random strangers to policemen, gave me a ride. Some gave me food and some gave me money without me ever requesting it. In at least one case, policemen even coordinated with the next county so that I could get transferred from one officer to another along a county line. Keep in mind that there is some added danger in hitchhiking, which even my dad experienced in his youth on one occasion after a good amount of hitchhiking. It is important to take additional precautions when you are not able to see reviews or make reviews for someone. Even when you are able to make reviews, I have seen where people had horrible experiences doing something like AirBNB where a woman was drugged in another country by her host who offered her something to drink. Also, keep in mind that hitchhiking is illegal in some locations including many interstates.
The main frugal way that I go from place to place is through credit card points. For the homeless and those with an income of under $15k/yr, if having 2.5%-2.9% return on your credit card spending for free train rides would be more helpful than getting 2% cashback, I recommend the Amtrak no annual fee credit card. It's a solid card for those making much more than that, but especially for those making less than $15k/yr. It is important to compare flights with trains and buses, knowing that I do not believe that there are good options with points for busses in the U.S. at the time of this writing even though that has not always been the case. For those with small businesses (or those with a side income like selling on ebay or Uber even if they don't have a registered business), the Amex Blue Business Plus card (also w no annual fee) is an even better card, often giving you more than 3% return on your spending up to $50k/yr when you effectively transfer points to travel partners like British Airways which is a workaround to getting American Airlines direct flights for a lower amount of points usually than if you got the same flights through American Airlines points. You can also get Delta points and others this way. It's important to checking multiple transfer partners prior to flying somewhere to see which transfer partner would be best. If you get both cards, considering taking an Amtrak to Miami, DC, BWI, NYC, or another big city then flying via British Airways Avios direct to another country. For Uber & busses, Capital One miles are a decent option, although you can get more value by transfer to airline partners like Avianca at a 2:1.5 ratio & then waiting to use the miles when they would be the highest value for your transportation needs. If you'd like free advice on credit cards to get, go here.
Hotels and daily necessities are often cheaper internationally in 2/3 of the world:
If you go to Miami free w points on Amtrak, for instance, you can then fly direct to El Salvador for 7500 BA Avios + a small fee, where hotels with a queen bed and free wifi are as low as 1212 Chase points per night with the Chase Sapphire Reserve (has a 50k sign up/initial spending bonus at the time of this writing. It gets even cheaper in some other places, like South East Asia in places like Delhi, India, where you can snag a room with free wifi for less than 700 points per night. If you are looking to get points with Chase, the no annual fee Chase Freedom , Chase Freedom Unlimited , and Chase Ink Unlimited Business Card (has a 50k sign up/initial spending bonus at the time of this writing), and Chase Ink Cash Business Card are great ways to do it. While the Reserve has an annual fee, it makes the points from the other cards 50% more valuable, so one thing you can do is rack up rewards on no annual fee cards for a few years, then the year when you are going to spend a bunch, grab the Chase Sapphire Reserve. 2/3 of the Chase Sapphire Reserve's annual fee is paid for as soon as you put $300 in travel spending on the card essentially (you get that first $300 free every year you keep the card). The CSR also can get you into frequent flier lounges around the world which is a way to get free food and drinks that I have used and greatly enjoyed while traveling for years. These cards all have sign up bonuses. The biggest sign up bonus is for a card with no annual fee usually in the first year (you can cancel it before the 2nd year starts after transfering your points to another no annual fee card), the Chase Ink Preferred Business card (80k-100k points - think 100k points = 144 nights in Delhi free!!!). Keep in mind that I get referral bonuses for the Amex card and for some of the Chase cards (unlike any of the other cards I'm recommending where I don't get any bonuses), so it'd be great if you could support this site by applying through these links if you decide it's right for you. Keep in mind that with most of these cards, you can't have gotten 5 or more credit cards from any bank that report to the personal credit bureaus in the past 2 years. See more on booking hotels (including 1 hotel for <800 pts/night with a 4.5/5 rating on Tripadvisor w free wifi and free bottled water & AC in Bangkok, Thailand) on my get a home page. You can get to Bangkok after going to DC for 32,500 Avios (transfers 1:1 from Chase & Amex) one way +$440.
For a plethora of other credit card recommendations, or to see how I use credit card points for cashback and travel and get personalized recommendations based on your goals and spending, click here .
