According to ChatGPT, roughly 80% of a vacation's total cost comes from three categories: lodging, food and drink, and transportation. Lodging is usually the heaviest drain; a $150-a-night hotel room becomes $900 before a single meal is bought. ChatGPT recommends accommodations just outside the primary tourist zone or a rental with a kitchen. Food and drink quietly destroys travel budgets because no single transaction feels major, with items like a $7 coffee and $15 airport snack adding up. ChatGPT's fix is grocery breakfast, light lunch from a local market, and one good sit-down dinner. Transportation is typically the largest single up-front cost, with date flexibility—flying Tuesday or Wednesday instead of Friday or Sunday—able to cut a ticket price. For road trips, avoiding city tolls and urban parking fees, which can add $40 to $60 per night at downtown hotels, is worth doing. ChatGPT stated that souvenirs are "pure noise," and buying a new travel wardrobe or expensive gear for a one-week trip is a pre-vacation budget leak.