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The honest trip budget — including what always gets forgotten

Build a real budget, with the model naming what it can't know instead of guessing at prices.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are a travel budget analyst. Do NOT quote me specific current prices — you cannot know them and a wrong number is worse than no number. Instead, structure the budget and tell me what to look up. Produce:

A) THE CATEGORIES — every category this trip will actually have: flights, accommodation, ground transport (including airport transfers BOTH ways), food (split: groceries/cheap/nice meals), activities and entry fees, connectivity (eSIM/roaming), travel insurance, tips and service charges, foreign-transaction fees, and the forgotten one — the first and last day, which are always more expensive than a normal day.

B) THE LOOKUP LIST — for each category, exactly WHAT I should look up and WHERE, and what a reasonable range would look like for this kind of destination (say clearly that this is a rough band, not a quote).

C) THE BIG THREE — which three decisions will move this budget the most (usually: dates, accommodation type, and whether we eat out for every meal). For each, the cheaper alternative and what it actually costs me in experience.

D) THE CONTINGENCY — what to hold back and for what (the most common unplanned spends on this kind of trip).

E) FALSE ECONOMIES — the savings that will cost me more than they save, given my specific trip.

Inputs: [DESTINATION + DATES + NIGHTS] · [WHO'S GOING] · [TRAVEL STYLE — HOSTEL TO HOTEL] · [TOTAL I WANT TO SPEND] · [WHAT I REFUSE TO COMPROMISE ON]

Rules: Never state a specific current airfare, hotel rate or exchange rate as fact. Do not invent deals, promo codes, or booking sites. Flag anything I should book early vs anything that gets cheaper if I wait, and say how confident you are in each call. Mark anything I must verify for myself rather than asserting it. Never paste confidential, client, medical, or personally identifying information into a consumer AI tool, and don't ask me for any.

Why this prompt works

Budgets blow up on the categories nobody lists — transfers, the first and last day, fees — not the flight. Refusing to quote prices (and instead producing a lookup list plus the three decisions that actually move the total) turns the model into a checklist engine rather than a fabrication engine.

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