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I am hesitant to say "do this", except to suggest that you prioritize what you would like to do and compare that with your budget, both short term and long term.
The car runs right now with the rims and tires you have, so I would say that changing tires is something that can be put on hold while you sort things out. I would look into the options for low rolling resistance tires, keeping in mind that all low rolling resistance tires have made compromises which have made the tire's performance in braking and wet weather traction less than many of the tires which are not marketed as low rolling resistance. That said, most of the tire manufacturers have been working to improve the rolling resistance of their 'regular' tires...and have been pushed by the auto manufacturers because it can improve their CAFE ratings. Only you know the conditions in which you will drive and only you can best balance the qualities you want in the tires.
Frankly, there is nothing "wrong" with the tires on the car at the moment. Sure, they are wider than one would choose for all out fuel economy and are probably a bit heavier than the mileage tire, but your brother-in-law made a good choice in the tire sizing to keep the speedo, gearing and so on correct which matters a lot when dealing with the modern electronically controlled systems. It is all too easy to get a car set up where the readings of some sensor or other are out of parameters and so the system thinks something is wrong.
Do some thinking before you spend money on anything other than maintenance that you would do anyway.
As far as the streamlining goes, it looks reasonable, but look at how some other people have constructed theirs and see how you can approach it on your Jetta. For one thing, do you use the trunk much? Easy access to the trunk would be very important to me, but might be less so to you. Remember to keep an area large enough for you to mount your license plate, tail lights and so on.
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