Gardening is saving in your own backyard!

====The saying ‘what you sow is what you reap’ applies to both planting and saving======

From the stock market to mutual funds; from ordinary insurance to variable life; from piggy bank to revolutionized saving facilities; and, from supermarket to our backyard discover the way to spend less and boost your savings.
How much would it cost you if you eat vegetables regularly? Aside from the good benefits that these foods give our body, we can in fact save a lot of money if only we grow our own food in our garden.
The saying “what you sow is what you reap” applies to both planting and saving. When our crops mature, we call them harvest. When our saving matures, we call them returns of investment.
A remarkable backyard gardening called ROTA-Veggies or “Gulayan sa Barangay,” organized by the Rotary Club of San Fernando Pampanga, headed by its President Remigio Tuazon and sponsored by PAGCOR and UPLB was launched last October 27, 2009. Folks and students of San Isidro in San Fernando, Pampanga were taught by Dr. Rodel Mahirang the basics of backyard gardening, particularly vegetable breeding and production and also emphasis on organic agriculture. These can somehow help people to be self-reliant particularly in growing their own vegetables.
This activity which may only be a secondary thing to most of us, in fact reminded me a lot of things during my youthful years. I personally made my own plot (garden) during elementary days, which made me experience regular harvests of pechay, talong (eggplant) and kamatis (tomato). I still recall the joy of going home with excitement of bringing my harvest to Mom and had an affirmation that I am capable of doing a successful planting.
People do gardening for different reasons. Others may view gardening as a hobby, a relaxation, a healthy option, or a sense of accomplishment. But as a financial planner, I will view it as a saving facility within our reach which obviously can help us reduce our food budget. With proper garden planning, you can have a fruitful harvest in the proper time. These imply a lot of similarities in the principle of saving. I would say that proper financial planning, which usually starts from right saving, can give yourself a head start of rewards in time for maturity.
As compared to buying a vegetable in the supermarket, a sachet of seed can cost you only P20, but can tremendously save you a lot of money. On saving, you can start by simply dropping a single coin in your child’s piggy bank rather than wait for a huge amount before starting a saving activity.
If planting our own can provide additional peace of mind when we know that the food we eat is safe, then maybe saving through an instrument that we understand well, including its risk and rewards, may just be worth our journey against investment ignorance.
The idea that you are sure of a better health when you know that the food in your garden has been nurtured with more nutrition and freshness will similarly assure you of attaining a good financial future if you are aware that your financial objective is always driven by sincere care and love to nurture your family.
Linking yourself to an activity like gardening may kindle and lift your spirit as a gardener and so does a family provider who works hard to provide a financial success for his family.
With the escalating cost of food, we ought to consider thinking differently by the way we feed ourselves. Growing our own food on our backyard may not be a new thing to us, yet it reminds us of many merit associated with it, thus giving us additional justification to save and give more value to the money spent on the daily food served on our table.