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Occasionally, I like to post things that I have realized helped me enjoy my life.  I call them “secrets”.  Today’s “secret” is to just pay the money, sometimes.

My daddy is what he likes to call “fiscally conservative.” But in the words of comedian Jeanne Robertson, “In our house, we spell that C-H-E-A-P” Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, some of his conservativeness slipped into my DNA and I dislike spending a lot of money on things.  When the Hubby and I were about to purchase our home, I got physically ill.

But the older I get the more I realize the necessity to intentionally spend the money on things that will make my life more enjoyable as oppose to just random stuff that I will forget that I bought the next week.

My recent trip to San Diego was probably one of the least stressful that I have ever taken because a couple of months prior to departure, I paid the $80 or so to become TSA PreChecked.

We departed for San Diego via Hartsfield International Airport, the busiest airport in the world with over 107 million passengers in 2018.  Hartsfield is laid out beautifully and once you go through TSA, you have access to the entire airport.  But there are only two separate TSA access points so you can imagine that there are a lot of people going through each one.  The general TSA line snakes for days. I have spent at least 45 minutes in that line before.

Not this trip.  With TSA PreCheck, me and the Buddy Man were through in less than 10 minutes.  I didn’t have to undress and redress on the other side.  It was so easy and WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Additionally, the last couple of times I have traveled, we have parked close enough to the airport to not require a shuttle to get to our car.  This is also great when you have another two-hour ride home and you’ve already been traveling for 6 hours with a toddler.

Money is a good servant but a bad master. -Gretchen Rubin

Of course, I am not advocating fiscal irresponsibility.  Your life is not enjoyable if you are sitting in the dark, hungry, or awake all night worrying because you decided to become TSA PreChecked.  However, in more appropriate situations, I am realizing that sometime I should make an intentional choice and spend the money to reduce my anxiety and stress and make life a bit more pleasant.

What “secret” do you have to enjoy life? Let me know in the comments.

enjoy life…

P.S. TSA PreCheck is valid for 5 years.  And, no, this post was not sponsored. LOL