IRVINE – Kenny Truong sits on the bumper of his Prius, pressing children’s stickers onto the fuzzy fronts of his stuffed animals.

From their back seat perch, Teddy Bear and a Pikachu plush named Pika Pí stare blankly at the 20-year-old UC Irvine criminology major.

“I don’t think I fit well with other students,” Truong said, affectionately patting the heads of his silent companions. “My mindset is so different.”

His voice trails off; it’s not entirely clear who he’s talking to. “Other students are here to party. I’m introverted. For fun, I read books.”

Truong isn’t embarrassed by his close relationship with his childhood stuffed animals; his Pikachu has even accompanied Truong to his UC Irvine classes.

Truong isn’t ashamed of his other big quirk either.

He lives in his car.

• • •

Since he began his third year at UC Irvine in September, Truong has been sleeping in the back of his 2013 Prius.

In fact, he said, he doesn’t accept any financial help from anyone anymore, including his mother in the Bay Area and his father, who bought him the Prius.

“I’m completely happy with this,” said Truong, who is from San Jose. “When you’re asleep, your eyes are closed. There’s no point paying $700 a month to rent a room.”

Before he began his car-camping experiment, he’d been staying with extended family in Garden Grove. But it wasn’t an ideal living situation – he clashed with his aunt, he said, and felt guilty for imposing on an already large, six-member household.

At first, he said, he slept in his car out of necessity. He was unemployed and couldn’t afford to rent a room near UC Irvine.

Since then, he’s found part-time work as a receptionist and promoter for a Lake Forest pain-management clinic. That hasn’t changed his resolve, though, to live in his car.

His ambitious goal is to pay off all $15,000 of student loans before he graduates next year, he said. The math won’t pencil out if he must pay monthly rent and utilities, too.

“Even if I was making $20 an hour, I would still live in my car as long as I can,” Truong said.

• • •

Hi, I’m going to be a third year in college, but the tuition is just too much. Is there anywhere I can park my car and sleep in it in lieu of staying in an apartment?

In early September, as he was contemplating living in his car, Truong decided to anonymously seek advice using the public bulletin-board website Reddit.

Within hours, he received more than three dozen anonymous responses: Park your car in a “low-density industrial area” or at a 24-hour store like Walmart, move to a different location each night on a rotating cycle, get a gym membership “so you have a place to work out and shower.”

Some said they spoke from firsthand experience. Others offered Truong a place to bathe, a hot meal, a gift certificate.

Truong said he was grateful for the outpouring, but accepted only their advice and suggestions.

He noted that he already has a place to shower – UC Irvine’s campus gym – and can afford to buy his own food and gas.

He’s been learning to play the stock market for fun, he said, and has already pulled out a few hundred dollars in profit to help pay his living expenses. His clothes and other belongings are in a rented storage locker.

“I can’t accept anything I did not earn,” Truong said. “Someone else could use it more.”

To convert his car to a bed, Truong lowered his Prius’ back seats and bought a flat wooden board that he lined with blankets.

A Home Depot employee helped him set up a stack of two-by-fours in the back seat so the board rests flat. The entire setup cost him less than $7, he proudly notes.

The 5-foot-9, 125-pound Truong sleeps in a sleeping bag with his feet between the two front seats. His rear windows are tinted, making it tough for a passer-by to see him inside. He also changes his location each night.

“It’s like I’m in a coffin,” Truong joked.

• • •

I’m really upset that some people get money from the government and don’t use it wisely at all. Really sad. – Kenny Truong, in a Sept. 8 Reddit discussion about government assistance programs

As a child, Truong said he was greedy. He demanded that his mother buy him expensive toys like the latest Sony PlayStation. That mindset, he added, followed him to college.

In his freshman year at UC Irvine, he lived in a $10,000-a-year dorm, treated friends to dinner and bought lavish gifts for himself, including a new Nexus smartphone and a $600 Star Wars Stormtrooper costume.

When he returned home to San Jose in the summer, he had an epiphany.

He realized how much of his parents’ money he’d squandered as a freshman. His single mother had been laid off from her job as a phlebotomist, and yet she was continuing to send him money, he said. He decided it was wrong to allow his parents to fund his education and lifestyle.

One day, he accompanied his mother to a Buddhist temple and asked a monk there how he could learn to be happier with less.

“The source of happiness is the mind,” Truong said the monk told him. “Money is not the solution. It can fix a lot of things, but don’t depend on money for happiness.”

When he returned to UC Irvine as a sophomore, he cut back – way back.

He moved in with an uncle in Anaheim and began biking to UC Irvine, a 75-minute commute each way. (When his mother learned what he was doing, she persuaded his father to buy him the Prius, he said.)

Then, over the summer, he switched to staying with his Garden Grove relatives, which was the living arrangement that didn’t work out.

Today, Truong lives primarily on simple, ready-to-eat foods from Trader Joe’s: bananas, bread, granola, soy milk, nutrition bars. The strict vegan diet allows him just $25 a month to eat out, and he won’t spend more than $5 on a meal.

He spends most of his free time at a campus library until it closes at 11 p.m., then sleeps in his car until the sun comes up.

When his mother found out in early October what he was doing, she begged him to return to live with his family in Garden Grove. She even drove down from San Jose with his older brother to make an in-person appeal, he said.

But the independent-minded Truong stood his ground, assuring her he was healthy and safe – and not going to change his mind.

This year, he’s joined UC Irvine’s Army ROTC program as he considers becoming a noncombat officer after graduation. He’d like to earn a second bachelor’s degree in the Army, perhaps in finance, and eventually work as a stock market day trader.

As for his Stormtrooper costume, he sold it a few weeks ago on eBay – and he couldn’t be happier.

“Was I an idiot,” Truong said. “I’m not buying anything expensive anymore.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or smartindale@ocregister.com