Consumer News: The porch pirate playbook: 6 smart ways to keep your packages safe

From rejecting an ATM's currency conversion to rebooking your hotel, some of the best travel savings happen after you've booked the trip

• Always choose the local currency: Letting a foreign ATM or payment terminal convert your purchase to U.S. dollars can add roughly 3% to 12% to the transaction.

• Book the hotel, then keep shopping: A refundable reservation lets you cancel and rebook if the same room gets cheaper.

• Some savings have a deadline: Certain travel insurance benefits may require you to buy coverage within 14 to 21 days of your first trip payment.

You booked the cheaper holiday flight. Compared hotel prices. Maybe even packed snacks so you wouldn't have to buy a $9 bag of almonds at the airport.

But did you know that some of the easiest travel savings happen after you book?

Personal finance company Achieve recently shared several less-obvious travel savings strategies with ConsumerAffairs. We dug into the research behind them and found five worth knowing before you head out for the holidays.

1. Don't stop checking your hotel price after you book

Most of us comparison shop for a hotel until we hit the reserve button. Then we stop looking.

There's a better approach if your reservation allows free cancellation.

Book the room, put a reminder on your calendar and check the exact same hotel again a week or two later. If you notice that your rate has fallen, just reserve it again at the lower price and cancel the original reservation. But be sure to only cancel after you confirm the new one.

Recent academic research involving more than two million reservations across hundreds of properties examined this cancel-and-rebook concept. They found that a substantial number of hotel reservations became available for less before the check-in date.

That doesn't mean you'll automatically save $100 every time you try this as hotel prices can just as easily rise.

But because hotel rates do fluctuate quite a bit, its smart to book a refundable rate as youll retain the ability to take advantage of a possible lower rate tomorrow.

Make this an easy hack by creating two reminders when you book:

Reminder #1: Check two weeks later.

Reminder #2: Check several days before the free-cancellation deadline.

Just make sure you're comparing apples-to-apples. Meaning the same room type, dates, taxes, resort fees, and any cancellation terms.

2. College dorms could be your next cheap hotel hack

You don't have to be a student to sleep in a dorm. During holiday breaks, some colleges and universities rent unused student accommodations to travelers.

UniversityRooms, a booking platform specializing in the category, lists accommodations at hundreds of colleges and universities around the world.

The rooms aren't likely to be confused with the Four Seasons. You may get a basic dorm room, shared bathroom, or relatively sparse accommodations, but the price will be very attractive.

This strategy makes the most sense in expensive cities where you're primarily looking for a clean place to sleep in a good location, rather than a resort experience.

Before booking a dorm room, its smart to compare the all-in price with nearby hotels, hostels, and any short-term rentals you can find. Also, check whether the dorm bathroom is private or shared, whether linens are included, and how far the campus is from the places you want to visit.

And pay particular attention to the academic calendar. These rooms generally become available when students aren't using them, particularly during summer months and holiday breaks.

Pro tip: A lot of colleges in the U.S. dont actively advertise dorm rooms for rent on big booking sites. So hit up Google and search the name of the university plus visitor housing or guest accommodations and youll quickly find whats available.

3. Use cash for those vacation budget-busters

Here's an experiment worth trying on your next trip.

At the beginning of the day, take out the amount of cash you're comfortable spending on discretionary purchases such as coffee, snacks, drinks, and souvenirs.

When it's gone, you're done.

There's actually some interesting research behind the idea.

A 2024 analysis examined 71 studies involving more than 11,000 participants and over 338,000 transactions. Researchers found a small but statistically significant cashless effect where consumers tend to spend more when paying without cash.

That doesn't mean switching to cash will magically cut your vacation spending by 10%, but it does seem to help psychologically.

When you tap your phone six times for gelato, coffee, a souvenir, and a couple of drinks, each purchase can feel relatively painless. But when you put $80 in your wallet in the morning and see just $17 left by mid-afternoon, that tells a different story.

Think of it this way, it turns I'll try not to spend too much today into an actual number and makes you more aware of the vacation money leaks.

4. At a foreign ATM, don't pick U.S. dollars

This may be the easiest travel savings trick on the list. When you're using a credit card or ATM overseas, the machine may politely ask whether you'd like the transaction processed in U.S. dollars instead of the local currency.

Always choose the local currency.

The dollar option is called dynamic currency conversion, or DCC. The machine is essentially offering to perform the currency conversion for you at its exchange rate rather than allowing your card network or bank to handle it. That convenience can be expensive.

Testing cited by the European Consumer Organisation found consumers paid 2.6% to 12% more when choosing their home currency. Separate research involving 1,500 ATM withdrawals found customers choosing the conversion lost money 99.7% of the time, with an average markup of 7.6%.

Here's how to use this on your next trip: If the terminal asks USD or EUR? and you're in France, choose EUR. If you're in Mexico, choose pesos. In Japan, choose yen.

Also watch for language such as accept conversion or decline conversion. Declining the ATM's conversion doesn't cancel the withdrawal. It generally means you're declining its exchange rate.

One caveat: your bank or credit card may still charge its own foreign transaction or ATM fees, so check those before traveling.

5. Buy travel insurance sooner than you think

Here's one that can matter far more than saving $50 on a hotel.

If you're considering travel insurance and have a pre-existing medical condition, don't assume you can wait until right before departure to buy the policy.

Some policies offer a waiver of their pre-existing-condition exclusion only if coverage is purchased within a relatively short period after your initial trip deposit or payment.

Depending on the policy, that window is usually in the 14-21 days range. Allianz, for example, says certain plans require purchase within 14 days of the first nonrefundable trip payment or deposit. Other policies use different deadlines so be sure to look.

The actionable move: On the day you make your first nonrefundable trip payment, start the travel-insurance decision then, not the week before your departure.

And don't simply ask, Does this policy cover pre-existing conditions? Instead, ask: Does it offer a pre-existing-condition exclusion waiver? What's the deadline? What conditions do I have to meet to qualify?

In conclusion, you already did the hard work finding the cheaper flight. Don't let an ATM, hotel rate, or a few innocent taps of your phone take those savings back.

For $7.99, a Dasher will pick up your return at your door and take it back to the store no box or shipping label required

• DoorDash is launching Dasher Returns, which lets shoppers pay $7.99 to have an eligible retail purchase picked up at home and returned to the store.

• No box or shipping label is required, and DoorDash says a Dasher can arrive in as little as 30 minutes, although timing isn't guaranteed.

• Before using it, check the retailer's return policy. DoorDash can take your purchase back, but it can't make a retailer accept it.

DoorDash is launching a new service called Dasher Returns that lets shoppers pay someone else to take an unwanted retail purchase back to the store.

For a flat $7.99 fee, a Dasher can pick up an eligible retail order at your door and take it back to the retailer. There's no need to find a cardboard box, print a shipping label, or make the trip yourself. DoorDash says pickup can happen in as little as 30 minutes, although pickup and delivery times aren't guaranteed.

The service is available now in select cities and is expected to roll out across the U.S. in November. Its pretty convenient timing with the holiday shopping and returns season right around the corner.

How DoorDash returns work

The new service is for eligible retail orders purchased through the DoorDash Marketplace. You can't use Dasher Returns to return something you bought in-store, or directly though a store's website.

You simply schedule the return, pay $7.99, and hand the item to the Dasher. DoorDash says the Dasher brings it back to the store, where the return is processed on the spot and the merchandise can go directly back on the shelf. Your refund should arrive within days, although DoorDash says the timing can vary.

There's an important catch: DoorDash is providing the ride, but not changing the retailer's return policy.

Before scheduling a pickup, make sure your purchase is still within the retailer's return window and isn't excluded because it's final sale or falls under another restriction. ConsumerAffairs' return-policy guides can help you check the rules at major retailers before sending your purchase back to the store.

Think of DoorDash as your return chauffeur, not your return loophole. If a retailer won't take something back from you, sending a Dasher with it isn't going to change the rules.

Is it worth the $7.99?

This is where I'd do a little math to see if its worth it. If you're planning to head to the retailer tomorrow anyway, paying eight bucks for someone else to make the trip doesn't make much sense.

But imagine the store is 15 miles away. Now factor in a 30-mile round trip, gas, traffic, parking, and potentially standing in a return line. Factor all that in, and $7.99 starts to look like a good trade for your time.

Pro tip: Bundle your errands before paying for convenience. Check whether you have another reason to visit the store or shopping center within the next week. If you do, make the return yourself. If the return requires a special trip, that's when the $7.99 fee becomes much easier to justify.

DoorDash is becoming more like a mall

Returns aren't the only retail expansion DoorDash announced.

The company is adding Macy's, Anthropologie, The North Face, Vans, and Timberland to its retail marketplace. Macy's merchandise will be available through more than 350 stores nationwide, Anthropologie through more than 220, and The North Face, Vans, and Timberland through more than 350 combined locations.

They join retailers already available through DoorDash, including Costco, Barnes & Noble, Gap, Kohl's, and SKIMS. DoorDash says more than half of the National Retail Federation's Top 100 Retailers now partner with the company.

Don't let $7.99 cost you more

There's one psychological trap worth paying attention to.

Say you bought a $30 shirt you don't want. It's tempting to look at the $7.99 return fee and decide it's not worth returning.

But keeping the shirt costs you exactly $30. And that's probably the best way to think about Dasher Returns. You're not paying $7.99 to return something, but you're paying $7.99 to make an errand disappear from your to-do list.

Whether that's a bargain depends on how much that errand is worth to you.

A study of postwar sugar rationing suggests the first 1,000 days may matter for mental health

• People exposed to less sugar during pregnancy and their first two years had lower rates of anxiety later in life.

• Researchers studied more than 46,000 U.K. adults whose early-life sugar exposure varied because of postwar rationing.

• The findings also point to possible long-term differences in sweet-food preferences and brain structure.

The first 1,000 days of life from pregnancy through a child's second birthday are an important period of development. Researchers have been increasingly interested in whether what happens during this window can affect health decades later.

A new study from the University of Surrey looked at whether exposure to sugar during this period might be connected to mental health in adulthood. The researchers took advantage of a unique period in British history: postwar sugar rationing, which limited people's access to sugar before being gradually phased out.

The study found that people who experienced sugar rationing for the longest period throughout pregnancy and until they were about 2 years old had a lower risk of anxiety in adulthood. The researchers also found differences in preferences for sweet foods and in some areas of the brain.

Research has shown that sugar exposure during the first 1000 days of life may influence the risk of suffering from several chronic diseases, such as diabetes, researcher Dr. Hana Navratilova from IPB University, Indonesia, said in a news release. Because weve seen in our previous work links between the liking of sugary foods and mental health issues, we were specifically interested in understanding if having sugar in early life could contribute to incidences of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety later in life.

Knowing the full impact that sugar can have on our physical and mental health, across our lifespan, could help inform public health policy and reshape our diets.

How did researchers study this?

The team used health and other data from 46,448 U.K. Biobank participants born between October 1951 and March 1956. Because sugar rationing was being phased out during those years, participants had different levels and lengths of exposure depending on when they were born.

Researchers divided participants into groups based on how long they experienced sugar rationing, including exposure only before birth and exposure that continued through six, 12, 18, or 24 months of age. They also included people born after rationing had ended as comparison groups.

The researchers then examined participants' sweet-food preferences and used linked medical records to identify diagnoses of anxiety and depression. They also analyzed brain-imaging data from 5,990 participants to look for differences in grey matter volume. Statistical models accounted for a number of demographic, lifestyle, and health factors.

What did the study find?

The group exposed to sugar rationing throughout pregnancy and the first two years of life reported a slightly lower preference for sweet foods as adults. They also had a lower rate of anxiety compared with people who were never exposed to rationing. That association remained after researchers accounted for sugar intake later in life.

The researchers also found differences in brain structure across the rationing groups. Of 139 brain regions examined, 80 showed differences across groups, with 11 regions showing significant differences between most rationed groups and the never-rationed group.

There was also an initial association with depression, but it became weaker and was no longer statistically significant after additional adjustments. That means the study's strongest finding was the connection between longer early-life sugar rationing and lower anxiety risk.

Importantly, this was an observational study. The results show an association, not proof that eating less sugar during pregnancy or infancy directly prevents anxiety decades later. Still, the researchers say the findings suggest that early nutritional experiences may have lasting effects on mental health.

A six-month study found fewer breathing interruptions in people taking the medication

• An experimental once-daily pill reduced sleep apnea-related breathing interruptions by about 44% in a phase 3 trial.

• The study included 646 adults who could not tolerate or declined standard PAP therapy.

• The medication improved several measures of nighttime breathing and oxygen levels, but side effects led some participants to stop treatment.

For people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), keeping the airway open during sleep can be a challenge. The condition causes repeated blockages in the upper airway, which can interrupt breathing and reduce oxygen levels during the night.

Continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, is a common treatment, but not everyone is able or willing to use it long term. That has researchers looking for other approaches.

One experimental option is AD109, a once-daily pill that combines two medications: aroxybutynin and atomoxetine. The drugs are designed to increase the activity of muscles in the upper airway during sleep, making the airway less likely to collapse.

"In many other chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, or type 2 diabetes, it would be unthinkable for the majority of diagnosed patients to remain untreated or undertreated, first author Patrick John Strollo, MD, a sleep medicine physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said in a news release. Yet that remains the reality in OSA.

"An oral pill that targets the underlying neuromuscular drivers of airway collapse during sleep could help address this gap and broaden the range of effective options for patients who remain untreated today."

How researchers tested the pill

The phase 3 SynAIRgy trial included 646 adults with mild to severe obstructive sleep apnea who had either been unable to use or had refused positive airway pressure therapy.

Researchers randomly assigned participants to receive either AD109 or a placebo, meaning a pill without the active medications. Neither the participants nor researchers knew who received which treatment during the trial.

The study lasted 26 weeks, or about six months, and was conducted at 69 sites in the U.S. and Canada. Participants underwent overnight sleep studies at the beginning of the trial and again during the study.

Researchers measured their apnea-hypopnea index, or AHI, which tracks how often breathing is interrupted during sleep, along with oxygen levels and other measures of sleep and fatigue.

What the study found

After 26 weeks, people taking AD109 had an estimated 44.1% reduction in their AHI, compared with a 17.6% reduction among those taking the placebo. The medication also improved measures of nighttime oxygen problems, including the number of times oxygen levels dropped and the amount of time participants experienced low oxygen.

More than 40% of people taking AD109 moved into a less severe sleep apnea category, according to the study. However, the medication did not produce a statistically significant improvement in the study's measure of fatigue.

The treatment also had side effects. The most commonly reported were dry mouth, nausea, insomnia, and difficulty urinating. About 21% of participants taking AD109 discontinued treatment because of adverse events, compared with about 3% of those taking the placebo.

For consumers, the findings suggest that an oral medication could eventually provide another treatment option for some people with sleep apnea who cannot use PAP therapy. But AD109 is still an investigational treatment, so the study does not mean that people with sleep apnea should replace their current treatment with the medication.

Trying to save money on a home project can backfire when a simple mistake turns into an expensive repair

• The average homeowner spends $1,852 fixing a costly DIY home improvement mistake.

• Plumbing, electrical and HVAC projects can quickly become more expensive when a small mistake snowballs into a larger problem.

• Online tutorials can be helpful, but homeowners who relied on them reported a higher injury rate than those who sought professional help.

DIY home improvement projects can be a great way to save money until something goes wrong.

A project that starts with good intentions and a YouTube tutorial can quickly turn into a costly repair, especially when a mistake involves plumbing, electrical work or other jobs that require specialized skills. And sometimes, homeowners may not realize they've made a mistake until the damage is already done.

A new survey from SupplyHouse found that the average homeowner spends $1,852 fixing or replacing something after a DIY home improvement mistake. In fact, 58% of homeowners said they ended up spending more than they would have if they had hired a professional or done the project correctly the first time.

ConsumerAffairs spoke with Jay Yglesias, Product Support Lead at SupplyHouse, who explained which common mistakes can become especially expensive and when homeowners should think twice before tackling a project themselves.

How the study was conducted

SupplyHouse surveyed 1,007 U.S. homeowners in July 2026 about their home improvement mistakes, including what went wrong, how much repairs cost, why they attempted the projects themselves, and whether anyone was injured.

The company also analyzed 2025 data from the Consumer Product Safety Commissions National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) to identify the home improvement tools and materials most often involved in emergency-room-treated injuries. The study also compared DIY parts costs with professional installation prices for 14 common home improvement projects.

Key findings

The survey found that DIY mistakes can get expensive quickly. The average homeowner spent $1,852 fixing or replacing something after a costly home improvement mistake, while 58% said they ultimately spent more than a professional job or a successful first attempt would have cost. Saving money was the original motivation for 38% of homeowners tackling their costliest project.

Yglesias explained which home improvement projects carry the highest risk for non-professionals.

Take, for example, refrigeration and various forms of heating, he said. Heating can include venting and a number of other things. Doing electrical work carries shock risk. Permitting and other considerations can greatly affect the cost-benefit analysis of various DIY projects.

Our electrical panel comparison, which is part of our research study, helps homeowners understand various risk-reward tradeoffs. We found that there is very little financial difference between doing electrical repairs yourself and the cost of the most inexpensive electrical service call. The financial difference between these repairs is only $34.

The survey also found that 41% of homeowners had trusted their own instincts or a YouTube or TikTok tutorial over a licensed professional. Meanwhile, 18% said they had hidden, covered up or quietly hired someone to fix a botched project before anyone else in the household noticed.

There was a safety concern, too: 15% of homeowners said they had been injured while attempting a home improvement project. The federal injury data found that ladders were associated with the most estimated ER visits, at more than 81,000 per year, followed by nails, screws, or tacks at more than 40,000.

The snowball effect

Yglesias shared some of the common ways that DIY projects go awry for consumers.

Oftentimes, people will end up costing themselves more money by taking on projects that have to do with plumbing, electrical work, or HVAC and suffer from the snowball effect, Yglesias told ConsumerAffairs. One small error can become a larger, costlier issue in what started out as a simple DIY fix.

There's also the issue in DIY projects that underlying causes are either unknown or not addressed. Now the homeowner is paying twice: once for the original materials, and again for the professional called in to fix or finish the job.

Watch out for online tutorials

There are times where watching a quick video on YouTube or TikTok can help you complete a house project seamlessly. However, there are other times where watching a video can lead you astray.

Online tutorials can be useful, but may deceive the user, Yglesias said. Online videos cannot tell you about bad shutoff valves or explain other issues with your home, which could put you at risk.

Users of such online videos reported an injury rate of 22% while those who deferred to professional assistance reported an injury rate of 11%. For situations that carry an increased risk, one should consider their level of experience and if they have the right equipment to compensate.