If you are like most Americans, you are probably looking for great coverage for your home insurance that won't break the bank. Although we aren't familiar with what your personal risk profile is, here are a few ideas that have helped many of our readers decide what is important to spend money on, and what isn't.

Decide between a $500 and $1,000 Deductible. The deductible is the amount you need to pay if you file a claim. A $500 deductible is pretty standard. If you want more affordable home insurance, you might want to evaluate what the cost differential is to raise your deductible to $1,000.

Purchase either an HO2 or HO3 Policy. The HO2 policy is a named perils policy that will cover you for sixteen specific risks. The HO3 policy is an open perils policy, only excluding a few risks. Both of these policies are good policies (with the HO3 being superior to the HO2), and are the best for homeowners who want to protect themselves but still keep their costs low, and maintain affordable home insurance.

Make Coverage Amounts Realistic. Home insurance comes with six standard sections of coverage; Dwelling, Other Structures, Personal Property, Loss of Use, Liability, and Medical Payments. Each of these sections has a standard amount of coverage that is a percent of the coverage amount you have on your home. For example, most home insurance packages come with personal property coverage that amounts to 60% of your dwelling coverage. That means if your home is insured for $100,000, you will have $60,000 of personal property coverage. If you don't own this amount of personal property, you might try to lower your personal property coverage to 40 or 50% of your dwelling coverage. This should reduce your premiums.

Shop Your Insurance Regularly It is in your best interest to shop your insurance regularly, to ensure that you are still getting affordable home insurance. Many things can happen that can make insurance prices fluctuate up and down. Without shopping your insurance, you would have no idea if your current insurance company is maintaining competitive prices, or starting to become a more expensive home insurance provider. Take five minutes right now to receive five home insurance quotes to make sure you are still getting a great deal.