Most people's spending spikes on travel days but mine usually stays pretty low because of all the free stuff I get with my premium travel credit cards (I have both the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Amex Platinum).
I left my house on a shuttle to the airport at 7 a.m. We stopped halfway through the three-hour drive at a small diner, and I bought some breakfast tamales and a cup of coffee for $2 total. I also popped in a souvenir shop to buy artisanal Costa Rican chocolate bars and empanadas to give as gifts to the family and friends who were going to host me in the US, which rang up at $15.
Apart from breakfast, I ate almost entirely for free for the rest of the day. When I got to the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, for my 1 p.m. flight, I went to the new American Express lounge, which I can access because I hold the Amex Platinum card. They have a pretty good spread of hot and cold food as well as free beer and wine in that lounge, so I filled up on that for lunch.
As luck would have it, my flight was delayed, and I ended up missing my connection in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Southwest rebooked me on a flight the following morning and gave me a hotel voucher. By the time I got to my hotel, it was pretty late, and I was starving.
I didn't feel like walking to a restaurant, so I ordered Chinese takeout on Uber Eats. I used my Amex Platinum for that as well, which gives a $15.00 monthly Uber credit that can be used on Uber Eats. My biggest complaint about that credit is it can only be used within the US, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize I could use my $15 August Uber credit that evening on the dinner I'd ordered, so I only had to pay $3 for the food I had delivered.
While I was in my hotel that evening, I also booked my flight back to Costa Rica. I'd only booked a one-way to the US because after visiting family in Nashville, I planned to travel to Washington DC for FinCon and then take the train to New York to visit a friend. I now needed a flight back to Costa Rica from New York.
One-way flights from New York to Costa Rica during my dates had been pretty affordable (under $100), so I hadn't worried about booking. Unfortunately, when I checked that night, prices had gone up to more like $200. I decided that was more than I felt like paying, so I used my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book a flight with Delta through the Ultimate Rewards portal.
Because I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I get 1.5 cents per point, so I used just over 15,000 points for a $230 flight. This isn't the best value you can get from Ultimate Rewards points, but it's still a good value. Plus, I'd already gone over budget on travel that month, so it was worth it for me to use points.