Commuting to university Pros and cons?

I was going to stay in halls during my first year but because of how my expensive my rent is and how little hours I have to go into my university for because of the pandemic I am thinking about living at home and commuting to my university.
I live in oxford and my university is in London so door to door my commute would only take an hour and a half at most and my bus tickets would cost much less than my rent seeing as I now only have to come into my university 3 hours a week. My rent takes up 2/3 of my maintenance loan leaving me very little spending money for the things I might need if I lived there like underground travel or food and even my phone bill.
I am a slightly older student so I am not too fussed about missing out on the “university experience” and I would much rather live financially comfortably if it means missing out on the social aspect of staying in halls however what I want to know is what commuting to university is actually like and how difficult it is to make friends this way?