steam - transferring games without re-downloading the whole thing

Q: Transferring games without re-downloading them. Is this possible?

Say I have a bandwidth cap, but my friend doesn't. Can I log into steam on my laptop using his internet, download the data, and go back home and transfer the files into my steam folder on my home computer, check validity, and then play without having to download much data?

In my head I see no reason why this shouldn't work, unless some of the download doesn't go to the games directory in steam, but it instead installed elsewhere on the computer.

cut and paste the Steam folder, then load the games as normal

Sure can, just copy the steam apps folder over.

I've done it multiple times.