There are many ways you can protect your home and contents. Things that intruders tend to target include cash, jewellery, appliances, computer equipment, televisions and stereos and even important documents. There are things you can do to help protect your home, but it is a good idea to take out contents insurance in case anything is ever stolen. Your contents insurance will cover things like your furniture, your clothes and personal belongings, your carpet, your Westinghouse fridge and your computer equipment.

Security alarm

A great way to help protect your home is to install a security alarm. It is a great way to protect your home and contents from intruders. An alarm will detect any movement within your home which this is easily controlled with a pin code that you enter into the computer. If someone does break into your home the alarm will go off and the security company will be notified by their systems and they will send the police around to your property.

Security door and security screens

A security door acts as a great deterrent to an intruder as it does make it more difficult to break into your home. It also improves the safety of your home for your family as you can open the door to strangers but still keep the security door locked. It can also improve the look of your entrance way if you choose a more decorative security door. You can also have security screens fitted on to your windows. Windows are often easier to break into than doors so don’t think that an intruder will only come in through the front door. You can buy screens that won’t spoil your view and it means you can keep your windows open during the summer to let the cool breeze in. The screens will also stop insects from coming in.

Security cameras

If you have a high wall and front gate on your property it is a good idea to have security cameras mounted on your wall so you can see who is at the front gate. They also work well if you have a multi-storey home because you can keep an eye on who is at the front door without having to go downstairs and check. You could even have an electric gate which you need a security code to activate.

High wall and gates

Having a high wall around your property is a good idea, although it will be expensive to build and you will need council approval. It will, however, give you added privacy, and make it very hard for an intruder to get in. It would also make it extremely difficult for them to get any of your possessions out of the property. You should fit a secure gate and have an intercom system. This is where it is also a good idea to mount security cameras on the gate as well. This type of security is only really necessary if you have a very valuable property. You will find that mostly houses in more expensive suburbs have security that extends this far.

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I read comment on another blog criticizing people for not being concerned with maintaining what they have. My first thought was to agree. Often during my home inspections I see problems that could easily be resolved, but then I have to stop myself. When I look at my neighbors, they are working on their homes. However, they do not know that something may be an issue, or they have decided to deal with an issue later. If we do think of our homes as the place where we live, then we do our best to maintain. The problem becomes the fact that we do not always analyze our homes to find an issue, or we do not understand that something that we are seeing is an issue. Yet there is another factor that plays into home repairs: the cost. There are some repairmen where I could be paying them $150 for their labor, and the parts may only cost $15or maybe the parts could be $1500. We may not want do a repair, because we are worried about the expense.
    The first step to saving money is being a smart shopper. You may realize that grocery stores place the higher priced items at eye level, and the cheaper items will be either quite high in the shelves, or low in the shelves. I could easily be spending $2000 on a sliding glass or French door for my patio. That is if I walked into the store, and purchased one of those beautiful units on display. If I walk further back along the aisle, I might notice that I could buy a decent unit for $300 to $400. The sliding glass door will have white vinyl covering the aluminum, and the French door would have bare wood for me to paint or stain. I do not mind painting. In fact, installing the door is not so hard, since it will fit into my existing space without modification. I took good measurements before going to the store.So I have come down from $2000 to say $350, and I am going to save on labor costs. My thinking leads me to the idea that I could buy a replacement glass for my current door. I discover that it would be $200. Not good. The new door is better. Yet if I keep looking in the back of the door section, I find that I can purchase a new panel to fit into my sliding door frame that would cost $150. Why a piece of glass costs more than the glass in the frame is beyond me. My point is that you have to be careful and look around when shopping. (Quick aside: if a store has an item selling for much cheaper than comparable goods, then it may be a discontinued item. This means that if you buy tile at a real cheap price, you will not be able to find that tile later when a piece breaks).
    The second step is to take care of one problem before the issue becomes bigger. Soon I will be going over to my brother’s house to fix a leaking toilet. I was there last weekend, and I saw water at the base. The wax seal is under $10. The job involves turning off the water; disconnecting the water line; and loosening two nuts to lift up the toilet. If this is not fixed, the water will seep under the tile, causing damage to the tile, wall, and cabinets. The leak might not seem like much, but it can lead to bigger things. The situation here is that we see the damage; we know it is damage; but we do not make the time to fix it. More damage ensues, then we have to spend more on repairs. Another example along these lines is this scenario: my neighbor has taken down his fascia boards to be replaced with new ones. He has not put the new boards into place for well over a month . I wonder what kind of damage has been done by rodents or other creatures in the attic. How much damage has been done to the framing by exposure to the weather.  The lesson is do not start a project unless you can complete the job.
    The third step is prevention. I think for most homeowners the roof may be the best example. You do not have a roof leak. The roof is supposed to last fifteen years, and it was put on sixteen years ago. Most of us will dig into our pockets for purchasing a new roof. We are preventing leaks from happening, which may cause further problems. We can prevent spending more on our utility bills if we purchase new appliances when our old ones are more than ten years old. But we could clean and maintain our appliances, and we may find that they are working fine. I see signs of possible future damage that could be prevented. I had a pergola added over my back porch. The contractor did a nice job, but I saw him do what many of these workers do: they build the item that I want without considering ways to stop future damage. In this case, the roof will drop the rain onto the support framing. Over time, the wood will rot. I spent $10 on a metal channel to catch the water, and move it to the sides of my framing.  Another favorite of mine is water from an upper roof being focused on a lower roof’s shingles, because of the gutter design. The shingles deteriorate faster. A simple gutter channel will make the roof last longer.
    I believe that most homeowners desire to maintain their homes. We just do not know how. If you are reading through the maintenance sections of this blog, then you will be getting an idea. I think that the biggest problem is not laziness, but the lack of organization. We do not find the time. Protect your biggest financial purchase by finding the time to fix it is the best advice that I could give.

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I was taken aback when I saw my electric bill for this last month. The amount was almost a third of what I paid last year at this time. I was expecting less, but not by this much. I felt a bit of victory. I think that we concentrate on electric bills, because they do seem to go out of control in the summer. Gas bills typically go down. Water bills go up, but never so dramatically. As an aside, I am looking at decreasing my water usage, even though I am not as worried about water costs. Water rates have been increasing, and we may find ourselves having to pay for the true amount for the service, so it is better to start now. The road to lower my electric bill has actually been a long one, but I am still not done implementing my strategy to reduce the amount of electricity that I use. I thought that I would share these steps to help you along this path.

Step 1) Understand your bill.  My electric service provider had me in a contract where I was going to face a fine if I broke the contract. At the time, I thought that I had a good deal, but I found that was not the case. When I began looking for another provider, I compared their rates for how many cents average for a kilowatt hour. As I talked to others, I found that they had all made the same mistake that I had: not understanding that the final amount involved more than that charge. I was comparing apples to oranges, and I was not aware that I was doing that. Fortunately, I was reading the fine print. I was familiar with the various charges on my old bill, and when going through a website for another service provider, I happened upon a statement about the other charges. Once I began to look for them, I found statements that indicated that fantastic deals could be more expensive than what I already had. Read through the sites to understand what they may be charging you to find the provider with the best deal. Rates may mislead.

Step 2) Green home conversion. Look through my posts under that category, and you will find what I have been doing to my house. To begin reducing your utility bill, you can change the light bulbs, insulate, seal, and follow other green advice. I did not tackle this overnight, and I am going to continue. What I do try to stress in these posts is the idea that you should understand why something is happening in your home, and then find the best way to address it. I begin one project when I have the money for it, or the time is right. I will not spend along time in an attic in a Houston summer, so there is still more installation to do, as well as other things.

Step 3) Be proactive. Our knowledge of how homes work, and how to best deal with their inefficiencies is growing, but we are not there yet. As manufacturers start producing products to meet the trend, you could already be there. I find that people will do one thing to reduce their electric bill, like adding insulation, but then they stop. Rates go up, so that one step failed you (or so you believe). When I cannot easily find a product off the shelf at the home improvement center there are other options. Buy it off the internet. Make it yourself. (I am finding that making things myself saves me money, and it is not hard to do). Discover the latest ideas.

Step 4) Reduce what you use. Bigger is better. More is better. We become stuck in our ways. I stopped using my desktop. The laptop uses far less energy. I do not pull out a kitchen appliance when I can do something by hand. Power strips are turned off after we use the devices attached to them, like computers or televisions. Lights do not stay on. Most methods of reducing are habits.  Once the children learn that they can pull up a shade for light during the day instead of using the lamp, you will find energy reduction. However, there is another aspect to consider. Do you need the largest television? Many consumer goods using electricity have advertising indicating their energy savings, but this does not mean that they are equals. Look at how much energy is used. Decide if you need the item, or is there a reason for wanting it. The top of the line coffee maker which does one hundred and one things is great, but if I only need it for coffee, why plug it in. The fancier coffee maker is probably using electricity all of the time.

Step 5) Do not use the electricity in the first place. With the heat advisory in Houston right now, I have not been able to take the children outside. Having them play, is a great way to remove them from the temptation of the television, computer, or gaming system. However, in the house, we read together. We draw. We have projects. If we are outside on a summer’s evening, no electricity inside the house is needed. The sun sets so late that we can continue the outdoor fun.  But not using electricity can mean more. Do you need a digital clock plugged into a wall outlet in every room? We strive for convenience without considering how we live. Most of us use our cell phones to tell the time anyway, so do we need the clock? Here I am picking on the clock, but look around you own house. How many power hungry objects are there which you do not use?

Is there anything earth shattering in these five steps? No. I bet you have heard them before this. However, I do want to stress step 3. I feel that this is where we fail. Who wants to think about working on their home? Set it and forget it is the motto we all can easily follow. Who wants to learn something new that may help reduce their energy usage? Well, you do since you are reading this blog. Considering that there is nothing new here for you, it may be the step 3 is where there is a hang up, but step 1 is also a problem area.  You have to take the time to go through the documentation if you want the best result.  Hopefully, I made you think about what you are doing.

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    Recently, I performed a home inspection on an EnergyStar home, and I was disappointed. Maybe my standards are too high, but I came away with the impression that the builder checked of on a specific generic guideline to produce a home that a consumer would consider better because of the label. Do not misunderstand me, labels like EnergyStar or LEED can be good. They are ways to introduce the consumer to the concepts of green building. However, I think that the qualification for these labels may miss the point. A home with R30 insulation in Houston is not enough to be energy efficient, but it could meet a checklist. One thing that is happening in the market place is the concept of a green home is selling for more than other homes.Consumers want green, even though they may not understand what that means.

   I am moving away from using the term green home to the more apt sustainable home. For most people, a green home is about energy efficiency.There are consumers who are aware of water conservation as being part of a green home. For a few the focus is on health. Sustainability comes into play for others. With all of these aspects, we are concentrating on a part of the larger whole. We also enjoy the label. Labels, prizes, or recognition makes us feel good. A few people are beginning to see that the act of building is not enough. How the home is used afterwards or what happens to the home afterwards is just as important. We now have LEED-EB which does address these questions, but I am not sure if any building has gone for that certification. I have heard and read some negative remarks on the idea of being monitored for five years to see what happens after the initial label has been applied. Big brother, big government, and socialism have been bandied about. However, if we really wish to understand what the best practice is, we need data, which can only be achieved by monitoring.
    If monitoring would be good, should you do it in your own home? This is really the crux of the matter for me. To create a viable, sustainable home depends upon the user wanting that kind of lifestyle. Yet, aspects of this lifestyle may benefit the average homeowner. Here I am imagining a normal person. Someone who is not going to follow the ins and outs of the arguments around a green home, but who is concerned about his family’s health, his utility bills, and his budget. He is probably adapting to the idea of green, because of these natural concerns. But do you think that this average homeowner monitors his home? Does someone who is building or buying green monitor their home? For most people the answer would be no. Although we are beginning to adjust to that idea.
    The advent of smart meters brings the idea of monitoring our home’s performance into the spotlight. Commercials emphasize how we will be able to monitor and adjust our energy usage in the home from anywhere. Simply click away. Do we need the smart meter to monitor the home? No. We already receive data about our home. We have our monthly gas, water, and electricity bills. We also have other parts of our budget. How much did we spend on gardening? Did we have to buy compost when you could have it for free from our own lawn clippings? How much did we get out of the vegetable garden. How much did we spend on cleaners, home repairs, or other items? The lists can go on. The real point here is that we are in control. A home is sustainable if we make it so. A green home does not guarantee energy efficiency or sustainability. We do.
    If you want a better home, know what is happening with the home. This is not advice meant for only a green or sustainable home. It goes for any homeowner. Be proactive. Record your expenses. Record your usage of gas, water, electricity, and materials. Question if you can do better; can you reduce. Last week I did not take my garbage can out for pick-up. I had one sack of garbage. Many of my neighbors have two garbage cans. Or else their cans are full each week. If we pay attention to what we are doing, we will find savings. If we want a green home, we need to be on top of how we use it.

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Summers in Houston are dreadful when it comes to energy consumption. Our air conditioning is cranked high in our hopes to get away from that heat and humidity. I generally use about three times as much electricity during the summer than any other time of the year. I keep trying to find ways to reduce my usage, in the hopes that my bills will go down. Most of my efforts to cut down on consumption are being detailed in my posts about green home conversion, which you can find under the category of that name in the sidebar to the right. What I found surprised me though; I was still spending the same amount of money on my bills, even though I did reduce the amount that I consumed. The cost of the power, gas, and water had gone up.

At the end of the year, I look over my expenses for the past year to plan out a budget. I add up the amount of money that I spent on any number of things from groceries to car repairs. I write notes to myself explaining why certain costs went up, and I also calculate averages to help me decide upon a monthly budget. This gives me a good general feel for my spending, but if I am committed to lowering my spending, I have to be more proactive during the year, instead of just once at the beginning of the year. Finding ways to reduce electricity, gas, and water usage may be good for the environment (which is a concern of mine); however, the larger concern is spending less in this economic climate, because I just may need that cash. To be more proactive during the course of the year, I needed a simple plan that would let me see what my goal should be. I drew up a table in my desktop calendar that looked much like the one below.

LYC-last year’s cost (or the amount that I paid) for that utility in that month

CYC- the amount or cost that I paid this year

I pull out my bills to fill in the columns for last year’s charges. At the beginning of January, I looked up what I spent last January, and I have a goal to spend less. This may mean using a little less than what I did last year. This may involve some green adaptations to the home. It may mean changing some aspects of my life style. It could mean going without. Using less could be watching less television. Maybe I watch two hours of TV with my children in the evening, so let’s cut that down to one hour, and then find something else to do. Adding more insulation or weatherizing the home could reduce the amount of energy needed to heat or cool the home. Changing an aspect of your lifestyle may not be so hard when you understand some facts of how you are being billed. Electricity companies charge different rates for the amount you use during different parts of the day. For example, the highest rate occurs during normal business hours (8am to 5pm) because there is heavy use from those firms. Families are preparing their meals, turning on lights, watching television in larger numbers from 6pm to 9pm. These time periods have higher rates associated with them. What can you do to change an aspect of your life to reduce your bill when you have this knowledge? How about running your dishwasher or laundry after 9pm? If I am using my dishwasher, I turn it on as I am going to bed at night. I run my clothes dryer if I have a load that has been washed. I even run a load to wash at this time, so I can immediately run the dryer for that load when I wake up. Vacuum cleaning happens only on the weekend. I wake up early on most days, so I try to do all of my computer work at that time. Little changes can help.

What happens if your cost this past month was more than last year’s cost? If you have your bill, you could find out what you were paying on average for that utility. Did it go up dramatically? That may be one reason, but you may want to remember what was happening last year which may have caused you to consume less. For example, this coming September will see a higher amount to be paid than my September of last year (I am almost sure). Last year, Hurricane Ike knocked out my utilities for just over a week. I hope that does not happen this year, so I have to assume that there will be another week of usage this September. At this point, you have to see what you did, and how can you change so that your bill will decrease.

I thought that going on a plan that would average out my cost may help me plan my expenses; it didn’t. I like the idea of average billing. The consistency helps me to know how much I have to set aside for certain parts of my budget. What I found though is balanced billing is not always balanced billing. Centerpoint has a great plan for my monthly gas bill, and it is a balanced billing program, but not all utilities actually offer balanced billing. My electric provider told me that their version is called the budget billing plan. I believed that this would be a balanced billing. They never said that it was balanced billing, but they did not explain to me that it was not. I should have caught on, but I failed to notice that they kept steering away from the term “balanced”. I calculated my average electric bill to be $109 per month. My bill was $179 per month, and they were raising it to $210. I was not using more, but they had their method to justify this higher charge. What would happen is for a couple of months I did not pay at all, then I would have to pay this above average charge, which was frequently changed to a higher amount. I just canceled my budget plan, because it seems to have helped their budget, not mine. If you are going for a balanced billing plan, make sure it really is balanced billing; otherwise, you may not know what the provider is going to do.

How about allowing costs in one part of your budget to increase, as long as another part comes down in cost? I worked for a firm that focused on making every single metric either meet or go below the budget allocation. As a senior manager, it was my job to ensure that we took measures to achieve those goals. Yet I worked for a managing director who could care less about these individual goals. He knew by spending more in one area (like training or payroll), he could achieve a better result in another area. For him, the only number to compare was the bottom line. Did we do better than what the budget stated we should accomplish. As long as we did, the head office could not complain (much). I bring this up, because many people are turning towards vegetable gardens with the idea to reduce their grocery bills. In Houston, I do have the opportunity to grow vegetables throughout most of the year. I do have a thriving vegetable garden, but I have always had one. If you are planning to start one, then you have to realize that you will be spending more in certain areas, while hopefully spending less in other areas. Your water bill will increase. It would be hard to have that amount lower than what you spent last year then. You may wish to add another column to your graph: groceries. Is your grocery bill decreasing by an amount greater than your water bill is increasing? If yes, then you have accomplished your overall plan to save money.

You may become die hard in reducing your bills, but I imagine that you will probably take it easy. That is alright. As long as you are consistently recording your payments, you may find that you will start to look for ways to decrease them. Many home inspectors are turning to services that offer advice to reduce your consumption of energy, like Energy Raters. Yes they could help, but I think if you are casual about it, your best option is to start reading my posts in the For the Homeowner category. One subcategory deals with home maintenance while the other is focusing on green measures for the home. Both can give you tips to reduce your expenses. You get the home inspector without the cost

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On a previous blog, I began a series of articles dealing with financial advice regarding the purchase of a home, and what you may need when living in it. I was not quite sure if I should update that series for this blog, since it may not fit into my goals for this site. I could see myself falling into a trap of concentrating on that aspect of the blog, which I do not want. When I was involved in corporate training, I loved teaching the financial side of the firm’s operation, so manager would understand it. My method was to equate corporate finances to personal finances in the hope that people who could better handle their own finances would better handle the firm’s.

I do read a few financial blogs. I have only been a regular reader of two blogs, and then I read a post here and there on others. I thought exposing readers here to other sites may be a better option than focusing on this topic myself. I started looking at a blogs in this category to see if a site would be helpful to a new homeowner. Here is my list:

The Simple Dollar- I am a regular reader here. His writing style appeals to me, since he deals with his life in the posts to offer his own solution to situations we all face. The comments make for a fascinating read too.

The Wisdom Journal- I recently discovered this site, and Ron reminds me of the way I spoke to my managers at times. I basically compare notes to see how he does it to how I would have said it. I think that he provides some sound advice.

My Money Blog- I found this site during my search (as are the remainder on this list). I read several recent posts, where I obtained the opinion that he is quoting a lot from articles that he finds, but it was on subjects that were relevant, so I liked the sharing.

Lazy Man and Money- Quite a few guest authors when I looked which was nice to see different opinions. I felt that an amount of reason was added to posts by the blog author when dealing with these guest posts, and he seems to be successful with his blog.

My Dollar Plan- my immediate impression was that this site was a good funnel of information from other sites, which touch on topics that effect homeowners. Not a bad thing, but I felt more content was needed. I have to read more here to have a better overview.

Free Money Finance- I liked the help the reader segments on this site. I found there was a balance between quotes and commentary with a good interaction between the author and his audience. I think that I should aspire to this style on my site.

I will teach you to be rich- I am not sure about this one, but I found some good analysis on topics which can help the consumer. I did not feel a connection with many posts, but he carefully goes over some topics to provide you with information which you may not have noticed. I know that I did not.

I think that I should update my series for this site, but I think that if you are concerned with your finances in general, you should read these blogs.

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