It goes without saying that the easiest way to cut down on travel expenses is to go to school near where you currently live. Of course, this is not possible or desirable for many people, especially those who have an opportunity to go to a top-tier college or one that specializes in a certain area of study.

The to and fro of higher education can drain your bank account as quickly as any other hidden cost, especially for homesick students and parents who haven’t seen their babies in 3 or 4 months. Two round-trip plane tickets per semester, plus those wonderful baggage fees, airport parking, taxis, and so on, can easily cost over $1,000 per semester.

Like virtually every other expense, the biggest strategy for curbing travel expenses is to plan ahead. This is especially true because 90 percent of the nation’s students will all be trying to buy airline tickets for the same small travel window every year, with the cheap seats and the smart alternatives being snapped up quickly.

As a rule of thumb, embracing the tips in this section will save you at least 10 percent off your estimated travel costs. So as with technology, you’ll need to add these savings to the second page of your College Cash Strategy Worksheet. To do this, simply multiply your estimated travel costs by 10 percent and then add this to the travel savings line in the “Calculate Estimated Direct and Indirect Cost Savings” section.

Okay, sometimes you’ve just got to fly. But when you’re trying to save money, especially if you’re traveling within the country, flying can be costly and time-consuming. Trains and buses often get you there in comparable time—especially when you account for airline security and sitting on the runway—sometimes at 50 to 75 percent less than full-airfare tickets.

The two dominant players in this arena are Amtrak’s train service and Greyhound’s bus service, both of which offer discounts to students and military and do not charge baggage fees like the airlines do. Of course, you’re not the first one to figure this out, so saving money is all about getting your reservations in early, before the price-gouging begins for those last available seats.

If you have to fly, the worst thing you can do is try to stay loyal to one airline. Even if that is the airline your main frequent flyer account is with, saving $50 to $100 on a ticket easily outweighs any mileage benefits. Smart travelers use ticket aggregators like Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, and Kayak.com, which compare tickets from multiple airlines on multiple dates. To save even more, use the “Search for Nearby Airports” feature, which can save you big bucks if you’re willing to drive just a tad.

The cheapest seats on any mode of transportation are going to be during off-peak hours. Your goal in booking transportation for your student is to go as off-peak as possible. Consider trying to travel during the following windows of time:

Many parents secretly rejoiced the day their kids got their driver’s licenses, even though they’d never let on that this was the case. The reason for this hidden exuberance is that the days of playing taxi driver for teens had suddenly lessened or even come to an end. Of course, for teenagers, the day they received their licenses meant that they had a lot more freedom to go where they wanted, when they wanted.

Not surprisingly, many students refuse to even consider the idea of going to college without a car. Yet, taking a car to college can be a surprisingly pricey affair that parents need to think through. Aside from the additional mileage your student might rack up and the excessive freedom it can provide them, there are a number of other key points to consider. Be sure you get answers to these questions before your student drives off into the sunset:

Spending some time overseas can be a life-changing experience for many students. It also can be ridiculously costly because you have to add in the costs of foreign travel on top of your existing costs of college tuition.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t indulge and see the world while you’re young and free. It just means you need to be as strategic about it as you are your other expenses:

There’s no doubt that one of the best parts of college for many students is the adventures, the road trips, and the all-night parties. These extra-curricular activities are not for every student, but a ridiculous number of successful students do blow off some steam a couple times per year without totally sinking their grades. One of the biggest outlets is of course spring break, which can end up breaking the bank if students aren’t careful.

The biggest problem with spring break—one that I see over and over again—is that students do not set aside money in advance for their spring flings. Naturally, this leads many students to whip out their newly issued credit cards, along with a mentality of “you’re only in college once.” Sadly, because much of the expenses are going on a credit card, most students spend even more frivolously than if they had only a fixed amount of cash in the bank that they needed to make stretch.

So to keep spring break from breaking the bank, smart students (or their parents) set aside money in advance in an all-purpose “travel” account. This money can be used for spring break, coming home on the holidays, or traveling overseas. But, by deciding in advance to put $50 or $100 per month into this account, it creates some natural boundaries that a student is more inclined to stay within.