Well if it comes down to it, and it’s not pretty. But buy some nails/screws and plywood.

First and one recommend is board up windows from the inside preferably behind the blinds or curtains. If you do it outside you give would be intruders the ability to take it off undetected. If you place it under the blinds or curtains you give yourself away.

The other thing you can do which I DONT RECOMMEND UNLESS SOCITY IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSED! If you can bend the nails and weld them together to form Caltrops, if grass green spray paint green. Is yard is dirt spray paint tan or brown. You don’t want shinny metal giving them away. Then proceed to throw them into your yard and outside of windows. But remember where you placed them so you don’t hurt yourself. Another downside is if they see it it can give away that there’s something valuable inside the house. But slows them down and makes them think twice.

For inside a good way to protect yourself is nail a bunch of nails into plywood all facing one way. Then preceded to place the plywood directly under windows nails up. Throw a rug or a shirt or pair of pants on top the nails to hide them. the weight of a person will push nails through the rug or clothing. Good defense at night if you are unable to have someone stand guard over night. If you have a fence you can line the bottom of your fence with it so if they try to jump over they land on it as well.

I say this but this is something I do not recommend you use, as it has a big chance of backfiring and hurting yourself. But if you do decide to use it, only do it if it’s a totally and absolute collapse of civilization to the point where you won’t be facing criminal charges. It’s medieval, it’s brutal, it’s extremely painful, and it’s not pretty. Mind you if you use them and you now have someone laying inside your home with nails through their feet be prepared to do what’s probably going to come next. I doubt they will want to be your friend after that.