Is there a way to run bitcoind without being a full node? I want to be able to run bitcoind on a VPS I rented, but I neither have good bandwidth nor RAM so I do not want to be a full node.  How would I go about configuring things so that I can run bitcoind without acting as a full node or relaying transactions?
You might not want to run bitcoind at all then, you could just use a client-only node (AKA thin client) tool such as bitcoinj.

Before going for a thin client approach, make sure you understand the differences from running a full node and also some security concerns.