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I almost always use Cat5e. I run 10 Gbps on Cat5e, all day every day — just short distances. And even for longer distances it will surprise you. In my testing using my existing Cat5e house wiring I was getting 5 Gbps on probably about 100 ft. Far from ideal but actually worked awesome. If you were told that 5 Gbps was all that was possible you'd never tell the difference. Not jittery or anything, just simply half the speed of ideal conditions... but still 5 Gbps. In my experience Cat5e is also easier to work with if you're fitting your own connections. In short, you probably don't actually need the extra shielding of Cat6. You're better off spending the extra money on better networking gear.

My preference would be Cat 5e for general cable runs and Cat 6a for long cable runs where PoE or 10Gbps is required. Both officially handle 1Gbps over a 100m run (328ft), but can usually handle up to 10Gbps over shorter runs. Cat 6a cable has thicker conductors than Cat 6 (without the 'a') and is rated to handle 10Gbps over a 100m run. I did the mistake of buying Cat 6a cable for our home wiring, only to spend a few hours troubleshooting and recrimping RJ45 plugs wondering why I could not get all 8 conductors to link. It turned out that the pack of "Cat 6 plugs" I bought where actually Cat 5 plugs falsely described as Cat 6 in the Amazon listing. This turned out to be the case with many listings I looked at based on the user reviews (sort by Newest first). Even when I got hold of proper Cat 6 plugs from a local trade supplier, getting the 8 colour coded wires aligned up is a lot more awkward than with Cat 5e as the thicker conductors are stiff. Basically, unless you need 2.5Gbps or faster over very long cable runs, I would choose Cat 5e for the ease of installation and termination and the high risk of buying Cat 5 plugs / wall plates falsely described as Cat 6 capable. In any case, Cat 5e will provide vastly improved throughput, latency and stability over any Wi-Fi or Homeplug based connection, particularly over longer indoor ranges.