Accountable to the World

I've never had much of a desire to start a blog. I've always felt blogs were a little self-serving, unless you're an expert at something, have a really interesting job or hobby, or you're an aspiring writer. And I'm none of these things.

But recently my hubby & I have decided to undergo a major financial renewal of sorts, and I've been a little obsessive (ok a lot obsessive) about our "Plan". For us, it's extremely ambitious, and by broadcasting it to the entire World Wide Web (or at least the few people that may happen to stumble across this), we are accountable to people outside our little house of two.

(Another reason? I need a spot to vent my enthusiasm for penny pinching, because I'm pretty sure my family and friends are going to quickly tire of it. This way, I'm not forcing anyone to be excited for us.)

Here are the deets:

Goal 1. Pay off our car in a year.
Two and a half years ago we bought a really expensive car. OK, it was a used 2007 VW Jetta, but the loan was over $20K (including a previous car loan we rolled into it-stupid), and even though we've been able to make the payments just fine, we've realized our money would be much better spent elsewhere.

Goal 2. Save $10,000 by March 2011.
Socking away $834 a month in a bank account we won't touch and have limited access to will hopefully get this accomplished.

Goal 3. Limit our spending to $700/month. (I told you it was ambitious.)
We realize $700 is practically nothing, even for just two people. But in order to accomplish Goal 1 and Goal 2, we don't really have a choice. That brings me to the bigger picture, which is why we're doing The Plan in the first place...

Our Ultimate Goals.
Move to our dream home, hubby quits teaching to become a full-time potter, and then (if we're ready) babies.

Also, I want to share our story about how we are making our life happen. And if we do it (and I really believe we can), then hopefully others will be inspired to make their life happen too.