Home Security Tips On A Budget

You know you need a home security system, but you’re worried about how much one might cost. The installation fees, the monthly monitoring bills, the cost of equipment and technology, all of it presents a serious dent to your wallet. What you need are home security tips on a budget, ones you can implement without breaking the bank.

There are steps you can take to protect your home without having to spend a small fortune. There are countless ways to protect your home before you even try to install a home security system, and knowing a few priceless tips can save you time, money and heartache by preventing break-ins or minimizing damage to your home and belongings in the case of burglary.

Here are a few home security tips on a budget you can take to heart and into your home:

1.  Keep the windows and doors locked. This seems fairly obvious, but just one unattended entryway into your home can give an attentive burglar an easy path into your house. Doors may be kept locked most of the time, but be careful of leaving one side or back door open for an emergency: a potential home intruder, finding such a boon, will create his own emergency when he uses such a door to stroll casually into your home. Windows, too, should be kept closed and locked, at least on the ground floor. If you absolutely need to keep a window open to let in fresh air overnight, be sure to put up a proper screen to at least try and dissuade entry via that spot. Better, however, is to keep the windows closed and instead just turn up the fans, ceiling or floor or otherwise.

2. Keep your car keys next to your bed. You may not want to invest in a burglar alarm, but odds are your car comes with an alarm built right in. If you hear something in the night, you can grab your car keys in a single grasp and turn on the remote alarm with a single push of a button on the standard electronic keychain fobs most cars include now. Any burglar in the house is likely to flee when he hears the alarm rather than risk discovery. What a great home security tip! It’s not a perfect alternative to a home alarm — it requires the burglar’s activity to wake you up and you to actively push the button, rather than set off automatically — but it’s a great second tier defense, nonetheless.
   
3. Light the way. Are cameras and motion detectors outside of your budget right now? Perhaps. But lights? You can probably afford one or two of those, right? Burglars obviously prefer to work in the dark when striking at night to avoid detection, and a good source of outside lighting can sometimes deter them upfront. There are two home security tips you can take here: you can buy motion-sensitive lights, that only come on when someone walks near the fixture, or you can buy an outdoor light fixture and simply burn it all night. The former is more expensive upfront, but the latter will burn electricity all night, making it less energy efficient and price efficient over the long term. Check your budget and decide which options works best for you.

Of course, a home security system is still the best way to protect your home, and not every system is priced outside of a tighter budget.

BlueAccess and their DIY home security kits give homeowners flexible options to install a full security system and their home monitoring fees are quite reasonable. Combined with some of these low-budget tricks, you can use their technology to keep your home as safe as can be.