Budget home security tips

One of the best ways to improve your home security and bring down your home insurance premium is to install an alarm system. However, alarm systems can be quite expensive to install and maintain. Thankfully, there are a number of steps that you can take to improve your home security situation without breaking the bank.

Keep any hedges, trees, and bushes near your windows trimmed back so that a potential burglar can find no hiding place in your garden, as this may be enough to make them look elsewhere.

By installing deadbolts, you can give your doors the best possible protection against breaking and entering. If you have deadbolts, burglars will literally have to smash in your doors or windows to gain access to your property, both of which noisy occurrences are likely to attract the attention of your neighbours.

Motion lights, which light up the outside of your house when someone approaches, can be a highly effective, not to mention inexpensive, way of deterring burglars, as many will assume that they come as part of a more involved alarm setup.

Nothing scares off burglars like a large, vicious, and loyal dog, but if you do not want or cannot afford to keep such a beast, then you should at least pretend that you do. Leave some doggie accessories, such as a collar or a dog bowl, outside your front door, and get hold of a CD or mp3 of dog noises to play through the stereo on repeat while you are out.

If you are a woman living alone, then it might be a good idea to try to give the impression that a big, burly man also lives there. Leave a massive pair of work boots and gloves out on your front doorstep, and it might make burglars think twice about trying your front door.

Use timer switches to turn lights and radios on when you are out of the house, as this can give the illusion that a property is occupied when it is really empty, which could be enough to prevent a burglar from trying your home.

All the cunning ruses in the world may be undone if you fail to lock all the doors and windows every time you leave the house. A lot of burglaries are opportunistic, quick affairs, so even if you are only going out to the shop, make sure that everything is locked before you do so.