Available at more than 200 airports across the US, TSA PreCheck is consistently one of the fastest ways to get through airport security.

Depending on which provider you go through, the five-year membership costs between $77 and $85, and renewal rates are $59 to $78.

My husband has TSA PreCheck and raves about it.

Beyond accessing a shorter line — usually a wait time of no more than 10 minutes — there's an added benefit of keeping your shoes and light jackets on and not having to remove liquids or laptops from your bags.

It's nice to avoid the post-security scramble of grabbing all of your stuff out of the bins and putting your jacket back on while trying not to forget anything.

Clear is a biometric screening service in which members scan their eyes and fingerprints at a pod to be escorted to the front of the security line.

Memberships cost $200 a year, and the service is available at 59 airports across the US. As a bonus, some big stadiums and concert venues also use it.

It may not be available everywhere, but it suits my travel needs pretty well.

Because I live in the Chicago area and write about Disney World, O'Hare International and Orlando International are two of my most frequently visited airports. Both have Clear, which saves me a ton of time — the lines can get hectic in both cities, especially during popular travel days.

I've raced my husband in the Clear line at Orlando to see if it's faster than TSA PreCheck. I almost always get to the scanners first.

However, he usually makes up some of the time by not having to take off his shoes or remove items from his bag.

In addition to lounge access, complimentary food and drinks, and better seats, flying business or first class often includes a special security line.

At busy airports, this saves a lot of time and stress.

I've flown business class a few times for work, but these days, I have a much stricter personal travel budget. That said, I think upgrading flights, particularly long international ones, is a great use of airline miles.

I've done a 22-hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago in coach and would happily save up points to never do it again.

Waiting in line is just part of most airline travel. If you're looking for the absolute fastest way to avoid that, I think investing in Clear and bundling a membership with TSA PreCheck is probably your best bet.

There are surely other ways to skip the security line — Global Entry, premier airline status, and random free upgrades, to name a few.

However, regardless of which one works best for you, I think they're almost always worth it. Making a travel day even just a little less stressful is pretty priceless.

Pulling up carpet and padding that's been lived on for 20 years is messy.

That meant anything we didn't want potentially covered in dust and debris had to be moved out of the rooms. Since we were tackling all the bedrooms, that also included everything in the closets.

I never realized how much fits in a closet until I was moving it all to a temporary home. We barely had enough room to store our belongings in other parts of our home during the renovation, so we got creative.

My teen also learned the hard way that it's much easier to start getting rid of things during the packing process.

Instead, they ended up packing their stuff, unpacking it, then packing it back up for donation or storage.

My eight-seat Honda Pilot became a full-blown closet.

We stacked clothes from dressers in suitcases and laundry baskets, piled shoes in the footwells, and used the middle row of seats to keep everything on hangers.

Alternating the hanger hooks on the seatbelt meant everything stayed in place whenever we had to actually use the car.

Since our decades of accumulated stuff would have to be moved out anyway, we also decided it was a great time to paint our walls and some doors.

The professionals told us we'd need to do this at least a week before the carpet removal flung dust all over. That time would allow the paint to fully cure and prevent it from getting messed up.

We originally planned on doing the whole renovation in two weeks, so once we learned this, that timeline had to change. It ended up taking about seven.

Our professional installation was scheduled for early September.

We live in the Midwest, so luckily, that meant it was warm enough to use the garage as a storage space. On install day, everyone was also able to be outdoors to get out of the way.

None of that would've been a comfortable option during a frigid Chicago winter. Without knowing it, we picked the perfect time for the renovation.

It's worth looking up the specifics of your carpet-installation agreement before booking a service, especially if you have some large furniture pieces.

In larger rooms, our installers were able to move most of the furniture while they worked.

However, they weren't allowed to move our beds because of some specific contract rule. We ended up having to figure out how to move and store those ourselves before the installers arrived.

By the time everything was packed up, stuff was everywhere (including in my car).

The living room and primary bath were full of primary bedroom furniture and boxes. The kids' bathroom had beds and bookshelves. The garage and basement were full of boxes.

So, throughout the renovation, I kept a note on my phone called, "Where's my stuff?" that had sections for each room that detailed where the furniture and boxes from it were in the house.

This note became invaluable when we moved everything back in, ensuring we knew where it all went before unpacking.

It was one of the best things I did throughout the renovation.

Although my note came in handy for locating items, putting everything back in its place felt like moving into a new house.

Even though all the stuff came out of our space, it was a bit of a headache trying to figure out how to make everything fit again. It reminded me of when TSA searches your zipped-up suitcase, but afterward, it won't close.

Despite a lot of purging during packing, there somehow didn't feel like we had enough space for our stuff.

Since we have a dog, we invested in a pet warranty. About a month after installation, our dog had an upset tummy and stained the new carpet.

Unfortunately, this was when we learned the nitty-gritty details of the warranty — for example, it's only valid if the carpets are steam-cleaned every 18 months. We also can't use carpet spray to clean stains if we want to keep the warranty.

These annoying specifics were a great reminder to always read the fine print before signing something.

Olive oil is an essential ingredient for most of my home-cooked meals.

One large 16.9-ounce bottle lasts us about a month.

I work from home, and Quaker's Toasted Oatmeal Squares are one of my favorite snacks. Both my kids regularly have cereal for breakfast, and sometimes my husband and I even have it for dessert.

Needless to say, we go through a lot of the stuff.

Thankfully, I was able to find a deal on the Jewel-Osco For U app and got four boxes of cereal for $6 (which is usually the price of one).

Between recipes and drinking it straight, my family usually goes through a gallon of milk a week.

I usually only buy it at Jewel when it's on sale, but I picked up a regularly priced ½ gallon of organic milk on this trip because we needed it.

My husband and I drink sparkling water daily.

Although we've invested in a SodaStream to cut down on how many cans we were buying, I still like to keep some on hand for whenever we're in a rush.

Jewel was having a sale where I could get three eight-pack boxes of LaCroix for $12, so I pounced on it.

It's not my best habit, but I drink one Coke a day. The Coke from McDonald's is my favorite, and I treat myself to one a few times a week.

However, it's not practical for me to swing through the drive-thru every day, so the rest of the time, I pour my own can of Coke into a McDonald's cup and drink it with a McDonald's straw. For some reason, it makes a difference.

On this trip, I picked up a 24-pack of the soda at Jewel.

With a busy kid in the house, portable food is a must.

Our teen has braces, so bananas are his preferred fruit to grab while running out of the house to get to school. They're soft enough that they don't bother his teeth or get stuck in the metal.

A bundle cost me $1.50.

I'm on car-pool duty a few times a week picking up hungry teens from theater rehearsal. So, I keep some Nature Valley biscuits in the car for a quick pick-me-up.

They're easy to eat on the go and come in flavors like coconut, almond, and peanut butter.

On this trip, I bought four boxes of the biscuits, which would regularly cost about $22. Because there was a deal on the app, I paid $9.50 total.

I regularly have peanut butter on wheat toast, and my teen packs a peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost every day for school.

The natural stuff is my go-to, and luckily Skippy was on sale at Jewel for $6.49. I only saved about $0.50, but every penny counts.

Between sandwiches during the week and toast on the weekends, we go through about a jar of jam a week.

A jar of Bonne Maman's strawberry preserves is my favorite. It's not always in stock in the winter, but whenever it is, it goes right into my cart.

On this trip, I got a 13-ounce jar for $7.49.

Again, we're big on sandwiches and toast, so I obviously have to stock up on bread.

I usually buy whatever wheat loaf is on sale — this trip, I chose one from Brownberry for $4.99

Jewel sells a ½ loaf of Lewis Bake Shop whole-grain white bread. Although some of the brand's products were on sale, the white bread was regularly priced at $2.99.

Since we use white less often than wheat, the smaller size helps us reduce our food waste.

I also like that Lewis is a Midwestern brand founded in Southern Illinois.

Eggs are often on our breakfast menu — whether they're scrambled, fried, or boiled — and I prefer buying free-range cartons.

It's not cheap, but as egg prices rise across the country, I'm glad I can still get a dozen from the Happy Egg brand for about $8.

I love cheese. I regularly slice it up for lunch, serve it with coffee and chocolate for dessert, or make a big charcuterie board for dinner.

Essentially, I buy cheese on every grocery run. This time, it was an $8 block of SarVecchio Parmesan.

I think everyone in our house needs to eat more greens, so I keep some sort of lettuce on hand for sandwiches and salads.

I went with the sunny-crunch lettuce from Bright Farms on this trip because there was a two-for-$6 deal.

My favorite salad is thin slices of SarVecchio topped with crispy greens, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I got one for $0.99, but looking back at this, I should've used the coupon on the Jewel app to get it for $0.79.

My grand total came to $107.73, so I went a little over budget. However, I also came across some really great deals.

I don't think I could ever commit to doing all my grocery shopping at just one store, but Jewel would be a contender if I did.

It typically has everything we need for the week in stock, and the digital coupons on the app really come in handy.

There are more than 30 different types of yoga, so if you don't like a class, I suggest you keep trying to see if another style suits you.

I've tried 20 varieties, including aerial, chair, restorative, hatha, prenatal, yogalates, and even a floating sound bath. I still like to try new practices to challenge myself, but hatha and aerial are my favorites.

Hatha yoga is great for finding balance between the mind and body to prepare myself for meditation. Aerial yoga is a fun challenge that involves doing different poses from silk strands attached to the ceiling.

Vinyasa yoga, also referred to as flow, is one of the most popular kinds of classes. It's probably the first thing that comes to mind because it's the main type of practice I see on TV and social media.

Typically, a class consists of a continuous series of poses matched with the breath.

Over the years, though, I've figured out it's my least favorite way to practice yoga. I prefer to hold poses instead of constantly flowing from one move to another.

I used to get frustrated when I couldn't do the poses that my instructor or the person next to me in class pulled off with ease. However, eventually, I accepted that everyone's body is different.

After 25 years, I still can't get my heels on the ground in a downward-facing dog. Some days, I can ease into a half-moon pose, and others, my balance is so bad I stumble while doing a basic warrior one.

Get to know your body and listen to it. Good practitioners offer modifications to make moves easier or harder and explain how a move should or shouldn't feel so you can prevent injury.

This also means doing yoga from a mat on the ground isn't going to work for everyone. I love that practices like chair yoga and aqua yoga make it more accessible.

I used to have a hard time meditating — the second I laid down, my head went into overdrive thinking about kids, work, to-do lists, and my next project.

However, at the end of a good yoga practice, I can more easily calm my mind, take deep breaths, and just be.

When I started yoga in my 20s, it was all about burning calories. Now, I know it's not about perfection or doing difficult poses. It helps me build a mind-body connection that improves my physical and mental health.

Savasana or corpse pose, where you lay flat on your back with your arms and legs slightly splayed out, is often done at the end of a practice to help put the body in a meditative state.

Unfortunately, I keep a lot of my stress in my neck and shoulders, so lying flat is uncomfortable.

When I started doing yoga, I used to think it was the only pose for meditation, and I was just out of luck. However, I've found some great Savasana alternatives, like putting my legs up on a wall or sitting cross-legged.

Downward dog is a resting pose that's used in all kinds of practices.

Before I started regularly practicing yoga, I thought it was a calf stretch, but I now know it's much more about lengthening the back. Unfortunately, my stressed, tense shoulders take a hit whenever I try to get my heels down on the floor in the position.

I eventually had to admit that the pose just isn't restful for my body. Now, I'm not afraid or ashamed to substitute it for something else, like child's pose.

Some hardcore yogis despise props, but I love them.

When I have sore muscles, I ask if I can use a foam roller during class. A foam block brings the floor closer and makes difficult moves possible for me. A yoga strap can help keep me from overextending in stretched-out poses.

You're not weak or a failure if you use a prop during class. In fact, there are some yoga positions that can't properly be done without them.

I paid about $4,000 for a Disneyland vacation in 2023. It was a solo trip with four nights at the Disneyland Hotel and four park days.

Though that cost didn't include my airfare, it included all my meals and ticket upgrades.

While at the parks, I attended the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween after-hours event, which cost about $150. I also took the Disney100, $110, and Walt's Main Street Story, $160, tours.

My seven-day Disney Wonder cruise cost $5,800 for two adults in a veranda stateroom. Like many cruises, this included most of my meals and entertainment options.

Our room was about $1,100 cheaper than a typical veranda stateroom because it had obstructed views. But it was perfect for the cold, windy Alaska weather.

One major hidden cost was the port excursions — we spent about $2,000 for four excursions. We also paid extra for some specialty beverages and a brunch at Palo.

Not including airfare, the total came to about $8,800, or $4,400 a person.

Other than the specialty brunch, all my meals on the cruise ship were included in my up-front cost. Each day, I got breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, and we also had access to 24-hour room service.

My favorite cruise treat was the soft serve.

I'm used to paying theme-park prices for meals on a Disney vacation, which can cost $60 a day. Eating as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted, was a luxury.

Unlike some companies, Disney doesn't offer unlimited drink packages on its cruises. Fountain drinks, coffee, tea, and sparkling water were included, but wine, beer, cocktails, and specialty coffees weren't.

The cocktails were generally cheaper on the cruise. An old-fashioned at Park Wine Country Trattoria in Disneyland cost me $18.50, but an old New Orleans fashion cocktail at French Quarter Lounge on the cruise was $14.50.

I often travel to Disney theme parks solo, so a PhotoPass Package is a must if I don't want a camera roll of only selfies.

At Disneyland, I can download photos individually for about $15. If I get a line-expediting lightning-lane multipass, usually about $32 a day, I can get unlimited downloads.

For longer trips, the PhotoPass+ One Week pass costs $78 for unlimited downloads.

On my Disney cruise, the photo package was more straightforward because there was only one option. But it was expensive — $296 for the seven-day trip, over $200 more than the same package at the parks.

My Disneyland trip was packed with Disney history and unique experiences.

I loved seeing the castle decorated for the 100th anniversary and meeting characters in their Halloween costumes.

Paying extra for the tours and party was worth it. During Walt's Main Street Story Tour, we visited Walt's old apartment on Main Street, USA. I even stood on the same patio Walt did while watching guests enter the park almost 70 years earlier.

At Oogie Boogie Bash, I met characters who rarely do meet and greets in the parks, including Bruno from "Encanto," Lots-o-Huggin' Bear from "Toy Story 3," and Judge Doom from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

The Alaskan cruise was also packed with unique experiences.

Disney cruises offer activities from morning until midnight. We watched a "Frozen" stage show, met Alaska-exclusive characters like Lumberjack Goofy, and saw amazing scenery from the deck.

Every evening, we returned to our room to find our towels folded to look like different animals, and on the last day, we even learned how to do it ourselves.

One of the most magical experiences was sipping on drinks made with glacier ice while we were within a quarter mile of Dawes Glacier.

The magic continued in the Alaska ports. We saw humpback whales and sea otters at Icy Strait Point, watched a bear wander down Creek Street in Ketchikan, and held four-week-old sled-dog puppies in Juneau.

Every Disney vacation is magical in its own way.

There are plenty of experiences from both these trips that I don't think I'll ever forget — from exploring Walt's Disneyland apartment to meeting Alaska Fisherman Mickey.

But when it comes to breaking down the value of each trip, I got more out of the Alaskan Disney cruise.

It was a bit more expensive, but my cruise was filled with once-in-a-lifetime experiences, unlimited food, and unique Disney activities.