Throughout this blog I’ll be referring to The Dream and The Plan.

The Dream: 3 to 5 acres, under 30 minutes drive to a particular smallish town we have in mind (population ~ 35,000). A small house (< 2500 sq ft), preferably one-level, ranch style. A pasture for horses or perhaps other grazing animals. A barn with resident cats. A dog, or maybe two. A vegetable garden. Husband works at a job he enjoys, no more than 40 hours per week, and retires by age 55.

The Plan: get our finances in order. Save an amount equal to approximately 1/3 of Husband’s gross annual income by December 31 of this year. Achieve this by cutting down on all unnecessary expenses: reduce our “miscellaneous” budget by two-thirds, reduce our grocery budget by one-third. At the end of the year use the savings to pay off all remaining debts; the rest is for a downpayment on real estate.

At this point, it will be the middle of winter and it’s unlikely we’ll move then. Realistically we’ll move in early spring of 2009. Ideally, we’ll buy a piece of land and build a house. But those decisions will have to wait until we’ve achieved our financial goals, then we’ll see what the real estate market is like.