Installing an alarm system is one of the best ways to prevent your home from being burgled, and can bring down the cost of your home insurance to boot. However, effective alarm systems can cost an arm and a leg, so if you cannot afford to install one, you may be pleased to learn that there are a lot of inexpensive ways to upgrade your home security.

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.

You can buy motion detectors which turn on your patio lights fairly cheaply, and this can be a great way to deter burglars, not to mention mischievous children, from entering the grounds of your property, and hint that you have a more involved alarm system in place.

Few burglars will risk trying to gain access to a property that has a guard dog, but actually owning a dog can be a very expensive business, what with all the vet bills and expensive tins of jellied meat that a dog owner has to pay out for nowadays. If you cannot afford to keep a dog, or do not want the hassle, simply faking the presence of a four legged friend can be an effective deterrent to burglars. Leave some obvious canine accoutrements, such as a dog bowl, collar, or leash outside the front of your house, and most burglars will move along.

Women who live on their own might want to leave some large, dirty work boots and gloves outside the front door to give the impression that they are living with a particularly robust male companion, which could act as a deterrent to potential burglars.

Buy some timed switches, and connect lights to them. By setting them up to turn lights on and off inside your home at a set time each day while you are away, you can create the illusion that there are people inside when there are not.

Do not forget to lock all of your doors and windows when you leave the house, as this is the most effective way of all to deter burglars. Most burglars do not want to run the risk of smashing windows and alerting the neighbours, and will jump at the chance of nipping into an unlocked door while someone is out at the shops. They may be keeping an eye on the whole street, waiting for somebody to leave their home unlocked for just a minute.

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Installing an alarm system is one of the best ways to prevent your home from being burgled, and can bring down the cost of your home insurance to boot.

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