Not having some form of insurance on your home can be a risk that could prove to be expensive.  House insurance can cover the building in the event of fires, subsidence, accidental damage and floods, all of which can be very expensive to rectify if you are not insured, so there are many advantages to having house insurance. 

House insurance can be found fairly cheaply if you are prepared to shop around.  Using price comparison sites can help you to cover your home for as little as a few pounds a month and this gives you peace of mind that in the event of an emergency there is help on hand that will not involve you paying out great deals of money. 

House insurance can be tailored to individual needs, so you can ask for extra accidental damage cover to be included in your quote, or other extra items to give you a little more peace of mind.  Insurance companies offer many extras on policies and you are able to select the ones that you need. 

If your house should be destroyed in a fire or other disaster then your house insurance should cover the cost of rebuilding your home and you will not have to pay out.  The insurance company will take care of all the arrangements and you will have to do very little yourself.  You should ensure that the amount of cover you have for rebuilding will actually cover the cost as an underestimation of the amount you might need could leave you out of pocket. 

When times are hard we have to consider cutting back on extras, and many people will consider cancelling insurance policies as they see them as non-essential.  However, with a little shopping around it is possible to find cheap house insurance that does not break the bank.

Price comparison websites are ideal for comparing policies and costs.  If you do not have a large number of valuable items and do not need extra cover for these then it may be worthwhile opting for the cheapest policy you can find, providing it promises to replace items that have been damaged, stolen or lost.

Check your policy for extras such as legal protection.  These are often added on at an extra charge and give you legal advice and assistance for many different things.

Many insurers offer discounts if you take out more than one policy with them.  If you have buildings insurance with one firm, check with them first for contents insurance as they may be able to provide it at a reduced rate in a combined policy.  Some companies do not charge interest if you choose to pay by instalments and it is worth comparing the cost of credit on an insurance policy.

Always compare home insurance policies as some that have a higher excess will be cheaper.  They may also offer lower prices if you agree to have extra security measures installed such as alarm systems and extra locks on windows.

I think it’s about time we get a new mattress for the master bed seen as we have had it for way over 10 years now, and because the service and delivery of my sofa bed a couple of months ago I’m going to order it from KD Beds.

Our current mattress is a pocket sprung one, so I think I’m going to stick with that design instead of an open coil or memory foam mattress. Not really sure what I’m looking for in a mattress, but flicking through the pages of the KD Beds website there are  literally hundreds to choose from. I’m probably looking at under £250 for the mattress, so it’s going to work out cheaper than I thought.

We tend to have an instinctive dislike for insurance, as we find ourselves more often than not simply paying premiums to the company every month without seeing any return. However, you can’t take out a mortgage without obtaining buildings insurance, unless you’re in a flat and the landlord already has your property covered. It makes sense, really, to protect your home against fire, flood and subsidence. The mortgage companies certainly think so, as it’s their investment that’s at stake as well as yours.

Your buildings policy may also include fixtures such as fitted kitchens and garages and many also include the garden shed and greenhouse. You’ll have to check what you require in the way of cover and as with everything else these days it pays to shop around and compare home insurance policies from a number of companies. Use a price comparison website as a guide to get you started. Sometimes a policy will include cover that is totally unsuitable for you and there will be others that are of no use to you whatsoever, so you must strike a balance when choosing.

Contents insurance is optional, but it would be foolish not to have it in place. Burglaries come out of the blue and at any time you could come home to find your possessions ransacked. If you are lucky, they may just be damaged, but whatever the case, you’ll want some protection.

‘New for old’ is the normal type of contents policy, though indemnity cover can be had cheaper. This is not so good as it will replace items only with ones of the same age, wherever possible.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was looking for a sofa bed for my spare room because I had some family staying. It got delivered today and I have to say it looks even better than it did on the internet.

In the end I went for the Sweet Dreams Iowa 3 Seater sofabed, which has a simple yet stylish design and is finished in dark brown faux leather. It looks great in the room and easily converts into a double bed in one simple action. You can never tell what it will actually look like when you order it off the internet, but this is definitely better than I expected.

Delivery took about a week and the delivery driver sent me a text message in the morning saying when the estimated delivery would be and for someone to be in. I can’t believe it only cost £259 from KD Beds, bargain! Now I just have to get a quilt and pillows from Argos and I’m sorted.

Insuring your property is absolutely vital. Your home is a major part of your life, often containing valuable items and not so valuable personal heirlooms that burglars would and sometimes do kill to get their hands on.

Insuring the building itself is something you usually have no control over, as it will be a condition of any mortgage agreement you sign and acts as security for the lender against a calamity destroying their investment. This could come in the form of subsidence, fire, flood or some other event and the sum assured will be the cost of rebuilding the property.

Buildings insurance also protects you against disasters, so even if you have no mortgage it makes sense to take out some form of buildings insurance or you might find your personal finances taking a severe turn for the worse.

If you are a leaseholder you may not have to bother with the other type of home insurance policy, contents insurance, as the landlord will normally have this in place. In fact, house contents insurance is not compulsory, as the mortgage lender doesn’t care about your personal possessions, although they may well recommend a home contents insurance provider, which you can accept or not.

It’s always worth looking around for the best deals, as prices can vary enormously. You should get three or four home insurance quotes from relevant comparison websites and select the cover that best meets your specific requirements.

Overall our bathroom is fairly modern, but my wife and myself both agree that there are two things that are really letting it down.  The first is the shower – it looks a bit dated and to be honest it is starting to leak a little bit, despite me patching it up, so I think we need a new one.

The second is the mirror, the mirror is fine (if a little small), but the way we have our sink it means that I have to lean right over to see properly when I want to shave, so ideally I would like to have a shaving mirror or a bigger main mirror.

Anyways, I’ve been checking out UK Bathrooms to see what they have on offer and some of the shower enclosures look absolutely amazing! And obviously they have some fairly standard, good quality bathroom mirrors for sale.

Things are a little tight this month, so I may be patching the shower up again for the next few months until I can afford a new shower.

If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I’m always trying to spend my money on various different things like the house or new gadgets, but seen as the summer is well and truly here I’m now looking for a garden gazebo to provide a bit of shade and somewhere to sit in the garden.

I’ve been looking at permanent wooden gazebos because we already have a nice wooden furniture set and it would fit nicely inside. There is also a patio area next to where I want to put it which has a brick barbeque on it (put in by the previous owners) that we use all the time.

I have found a company called the African Thatch Company that sells thatched gazebos at a great price; they are built on a base and come with a ten year warranty. There are also lots of optional extras to choose from including canvas side panels, straight log sides instead of balustrades and roof mounted heaters. An installation service is also available, so all you have to do sit back and relax!

I think I may of just talked myself into one, now to convince the wife!

The guest bedroom has been waiting to be finished for a couple of months now, the walls have been painted and carpet is down, but it now needs furnishing. I have been putting off ordering a guest bed because we haven’t needed the room, but I have some family staying at the end of the month so I need to get it sorted.

I was originally looking at getting a small double bed, but have decided to get a sofa bed instead so that we can put another TV or maybe computer in there, making it a dual purpose room. I am also going to build a storage unit which we can store spare duvets and pillows as well as be a stand to put the TV on. A bedside table and lamp will finish the look, so I best get searching as I’ve only got two weeks to finish it.

I’ve been planning to fit some underfloor heating to my bathroom for a while now, but plans have been put on hold because on Tuesday I came home to find a pool of water underneath my boiler!

I called the plumber out and he started to dismantle the boiler, ominously shaking his head the further he got into it. I told him to fix it whatever the cost, because I have two kids and and need hot water for baths and showers. Apparently the boiler has been leaking inside for some time and has rusted a lot of the internal parts together so needed replacing. The plumber was there for a good couple of hours and replaced a few parts, shouting me that he had finished went to the other room just hoping it wasn’t going to cost a fortune.

He showed me what he had replaced and the old parts which were a mess, before telling me that it would cost about £275 for parts and labour and that he would send me an invoice. Although not as much as I had feared it puts a dent into my water underfloor heating budget, so that will have to wait another couple of months.

On the plus side the boiler now works like a dream and is a lot quieter too!