Home security is an important part of keeping your belongings and your family safe. With the rising cost of living, tightening home security may be difficult to do as it often involves a lot of costs. Seeing that many people aren’t in the financial position to make any elaborate security upgrades to their homes, people are looking for cheap ways to make sure their homes are safe, particularly before the festive season.
Here’s how you can increase your home security on a budget:
1. Make sure your perimeter is secure by adding spikes and other deterrents
Your first line of defence against intruders is how secure the outside of your home is. Securing the perimeter of your home is a cost-effective way of beefing up your security. You may not be able to afford electric fencing, but that shouldn’t stop you from adding deterrents on your wall.
You can add spikes to make it difficult for potential thieves to climb your wall, as well as anti-climb paint which will make your walls difficult to climb. If you can’t afford to buy any of these, you can use broken bottles as a security measure. All you have to do is break the bottles into pieces and plaster them on top of your wall with cement.
2. Secure the interior of your home
This is quite obvious, but if the inside of your home isn’t secure it makes it much easier for criminals to enter your home. Make sure that you have security measures in your home. A burglar-proof gate is a must-have.
You can also add an inexpensive alarm to your home as an additional security measure.
3. Make sure that your home has good lighting - both inside and outside
Many criminals attempt to intrude homes at night, which is why the importance of having a well lit home at night cannot be stressed enough. Make sure that you switch on lights inside the home, and that your outside lights are well lit so that any shadows lurking in the distance can be easily seen. Investing in long-lasting lights is cost-effective. Simply buy fluorescent lights at your local retailer. They are approximately R50 and under, and many of these bulbs are energy efficient, meaning they’ll last quite long and leave minimal damage on the environment.
4. Join your neighbourhood watch and armed response
An affordable way to beef up your home security is to join your local neighbourhood watch, and if your area doesn’t have one, consider starting one. You and your neighbours can commit to having regular meetings as well as being vigilant in case any suspicious behaviour occurs in the area.
As a part of your neighbourhood watch or even your individual efforts to protect your home, you can sign up for a reputable armed response company. Most armed response companies provide customers with a panic button that they can use in the case of an emergency. This will ensure that should anything happen to you or your home, security or law enforcement will be on the scene as quickly as possible.
5. Add window sensors to your windows
Window sensors are sensors you place on your window in order to be alerted of any movement that occurs in your window areas. They act as an alarm and will make a sound when triggered. You can purchase them for as little as R50.
6. Don’t leave your extra key in a ‘secret’ place
A lot of South Africans are familiar with the concept of leaving the house key behind the potted plant or under the mat due to conflicting schedules so that other members of the house can access the home. The problem with this is that should someone want to intrude your home, they can simply open your door using the key you’ve ‘hidden’ in your ‘secret place’. Remember that your secret place isn’t so secret. Rather make copies of the house key so that everyone in the house has their own key.
If your budget isn’t expansive and you’re worried about how you can make your home for secure, consider using the above suggestions to beef up your home’s security.