I can’t really go into much detail, since I don’t know much.  I do know that her father passed away five years ago and there wasn’t any retirement money.

Her mom’s health is failing, she is in her seventies, with no retirement or savings. Her mother nets about $1400 since $400 of it is being garnished by one credit card company.  Another is pursuing her for collection.

Last year her mom had $20,000 in debt with this one company that is garnishing her wages and today she opened a piece of mail from the company and the interest has jacked the debt up to $25,000.  So although she paid $4800 in monthly payments, she is still $5000 more in debt.

My friend doesn’t know what to do. Her mom is losing her home, the car was already repossessed, and she has these massive credit card debts.

I don’t like the idea of filing bankruptcy. I feel if you charged up all that debt, you should be responsible and pay it off.  In my teens I knew a family where one of the adult sons had about twenty credit cards. He still lived at home and they went crazy charging a whole bunch of stuff, then he just filed bankruptcy.  I thought it was despicable, and vowed that I would never do such a thing.

But I think my friend’s mother’s case is different.  She won’t be able to pay off the debt she’s incurred in her lifetime and if things keep going the way they are now, she could end up homeless. Well, I’m sure my friend would never let things go to that point, but really what can the mother do?  She could move in with her daughter, keep working and even if she paid every bit of her paycheck to the debt she probably couldn’t pay it off in the years she has remaining.

The kicker is the mom can’t even afford at this point, to file bankruptcy.  I told my friend she may have to find some way to come up with the money to help her mom file bankruptcy.

I don’t see any other solution. This is one case where I have to say I approve of filing bankruptcy. What say you?

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1. Keep Your Filters Changed: I cannot emphasize enough how important this chore is.  This is THE NUMBER ONE thing you can do to increase the longevity of your unit.  How often will depend heavily on where you live. For example, if you live in the desert of Arizona with dirt roads around your house, it’s going to be a lot more dusty and you may need to change filters as often as once a week (that’s how often we need to change ours). On the other hand, if you live in an area that is not as dusty you may be able to get by with the recommended once per month. Get into the habit of changing your filter each month when you pay your electricity bill.  Special considerations to landlords: Do not depend on your tenant to remember to change the filter. At the very least, remind your client each month when it is time to change the filter.
2. Don’t Be Tempted To Use Thick Filters. Apparently the thick filters make it harder for the unit to run properly, hindering the flow of air, so it is best to just use the cheap, thin filters and replace as necessary.
3. Run One System at a Time: Some homes have what is called a
   piggyback system, with both an air conditioning unit and an evaporative cooler. If you have one of these systems, do NOT run both
   at the same time. Evaporative coolers work by putting moisture into
   the air, while air conditioners pull the moisture FROM the
   air. You will ruin your air conditioner by running both units at the
   same time. It is much more economical to use an evaporative cooling
   system so use that by itself until the monsoon arrives. You’ll know
   when it’s become too humid when the air becomes muggy and warm. It is then time to seal the doors and windows, put the damper in place and crank up the air conditioning unit. There should be a damper in place to close the air vent to the evaporative cooler once you start to use the air conditioning unit.
4. Keep Doors and Windows Closed. If you are accustomed to using the evaporative cooler (which does need to have a few windows cracked in order to work efficiently) you may not realize that you cannot do the same with an air conditioner.  Keep doors and windows closed and sealed properly when using an air conditioning unit.
5. Test for Leaks: Check for leaks around doors and windows.  Close
   blinds in your house and turn out the lights and look around the
   cracks of the door to see if light is coming in, a sure sign you have
   air leaks.
6. Lower Raise The Temperature When Away from Home: If you’re going to be gone for the day turn the thermostat up to 84 or 86 degrees.  If you’re going to be on vacation during the summer, don’t be tempted to leave the air off altogether.  If your home gets too hot you may find that your house is aging prematurely, for example cabinets can warp, glue can separate from veneer, etc.
7. Be Aware That the Unit Isn’t Running Constantly: As it gets hotter and more humid the unit will run more often; however, it should not run constantly.  It should cycle on and off fairly regularly.  You can check the temperature split to make sure it is running properly. Take a ordinary kitchen thermometer and place it in between the grills of the register where the return is located.  The return is where your filter is located.  Once you have the temperature there, go to the register that is the farthest away from the return.  Stick the thermometer into the grills to get the temperature.  Once you have those two temperatures, compare the difference.  You should find a difference of 20 degrees.  For example, if the air at the return is 80°F, the air coming out of the register should be 60°F.  This indicates you are getting good air flow across the coil. Anything higher or lower there’s a problem.
8. Abnormal Noises: Listen for any out of the ordinary noises when the
   motor starts, this can cue you to possible problems. If you hear
   abnormal noises, do not continue to run the unit. Call an air
   conditioning company for assistance.  When we had our old split system (one part of the unit in the house, the other outside) on occasion a rogue field mouse would get into the area where the blower was and when the unit would come on it would vibrate or make clunking sounds. Once we figured out what that noise was, we knew to turn the unit off and check.
9. Air Won’t Cool Down Home.  One thing that can cause your unit to
   run constantly and produce warm air can be due to dirty coils (primarily caused by not changing your filter as needed) which
   have iced over.  In the split system units you may be able to see the
   coil behind where the filter resides.  It is very important to keep
   your air filters cleaned regularly; if you allow them to get dirty and clogged your coil will also get dirty and clogged. If you see that your coil is iced over, turn the unit off and call an air conditioning technician because your coils need to be cleaned. If you are handy, just do an Internet search for the following words: do it yourself clean air conditioner coils.
10. Make Sure Vents Are Uncovered: This throws the air balance off.
    If you are trying to save money on electricity by not cooling the
    spare bedroom, then you will need to make sure the room is completely sealed, meaning the crack under the door, the register in the door or at the top of the door that allows air to pass through.  The system will pull hot air out of the room that is not being cooled thereby
    defeating your purpose of trying to not cool that room.

Let’s stay cool out there!

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Here we go:

On the first I wrote that Our Stimulus Check Arrived and shared what we’d be spending it on. On the second I gave an Electricity Update for June’s Usage. I was very pleased that the programmable thermostat had helped out us to save money. On the third I shared where I get my Free Address Labels.

On the fourth I wrote about My 2nd Snowflake and wished a Happy 4th of July to America.

On the seventh I shared my tip on how to Remove Wrinkles – Like Magic! and on the eighth I discussed my adrenal fatigue at length: How’s Your Energy Level? Adrenal Fatigue Explored.

On the eleventh, I asked Is It The Law of Attraction? Or Just Wishful Thinking? when Mr. A serendipitously found a piece of equipment he needed for his business at a fairly good discount.  On the fourteenth, I wrote about which method of spending is best for me and asked what is best for you, in Credit Card, Debit Card or Cash? On the fifteenth, I urged parents “Read to Your Children” and shared some of the favorite books I read to my own children when they were little.

On the sixteenth I acknowledged I needed to Cast The Beam Out of My Own Eye when I criticized my mother for renting a washing machine for so many years it would end up costing over $6400 dollars and admitted we were still paying PMI (private mortgage insurance). On the twenty-first I shared that I’d Been Busy at my CafePress Shop with my very own Out of Debt Again t-shirt. Isn’t that cute? Don’t you want one?

Also on the twenty-first, I asked How Does Stumbleupon Work? and on the twenty-second was grateful for Little Victories and shared a few little things for which I was grateful.  On the twenty-third I wrote about Dollar Stores and on the twenty-fourth said “I Can’t Believe I’ve Done It Again” when I lost a check. In my search, I found two rebate checks so it worked out okay in the end since the customer replaced the check.

On the twenty-fourth I went on a little Spending Spree since things were easing up with Mr. A’s business and on the twenty-eighth I said I’m Gold while bragging about myself for a database I’d created at work that made one of our yearly events much easier.  On the thirtieth I shared Breakdown of our Electricity Bill and on the thirty-first talked about my My Cheap -New- Computer.

Yours Truly,

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Many Wordpress bloggers use Akismet, a Wordpress plug-in designed to help with all the spam we get nowadays. And it does a super job. Some days I get so much spam I can’t believe it, so I’m really glad Akismet is available.

However, if a blogger is using Akismet, for some reason thinks you’re spam and marks you as spam, even accidentally, then every blog using Akismet will automatically think you are spam and will throw you into the spammer.

One of my fellow Yakezians, Joe Plemon asked the Yakezie group if anyone knew how he could get out of the spammer, and very helpful Daniel from Sweating the Big Stuff told him to check out this site:

How to stop your blog comments from being blocked by Akismet.

In addition to visiting that site, I have a couple of other suggestions.

On the commentee side of things:

• Be careful about who you mark as spam.  Don’t assume the commenter is a spammer.  If you have any question as to the authenticity of the blogger, just delete or trash the comment, instead of marking as spam.
• Check your spam folder every so often and make sure legitimate bloggers aren’t landing there.
• If you find a legitimate blogger there, click on NOT SPAM. This will help the blogger to get out of the spammer.
• If you find a legitimate blogger in your spam folder, shoot him or her an email to let him or her know they are getting stuck in Akismet, and send them the URL listed above so they can get out of Akismet.

On the commenter side:

• If you suspect you are being marked as spam, ask the blogger you’ve commented at to look for you in their spam folder and mark you as NOT SPAM.
• Follow the instructions at the site listed above.
• Get yourself a gravatar – this makes you look more legitimate and it’s also much, much easier to sort out the real bloggers from those that belong in the spammer.  The spam guys usually don’t put effort into securing a gravatar for their email address (because they probably discard it rather quickly anyway).
• If you’re wondering where I got my avatar, I made it on Face Your Manga.  I paid $1.50 for the right to use the avatar I’d made, and then I altered it in Photoshop to what it is currently.

Good luck staying out of the spammer!

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20s Money shares a history lesson with: World War II Did Not Lead America Out of Depression.

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance shares Summer Reading for the Personal Finance Enthusiast.

Bargaineering tells us How To Recover From a Stolen Credit Card.

Beating Broke asks Is Gold The Next Bubble?

Bucksome Boomer shares 6 Luxuries in my Budget and asks what is your discretionary item and why?

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff’s husband is a teacher. In this post he ventures out into the land of blogging with response to a post at My Journey to Millions in A Teacher’s Reply.

Canadian Finance Blog reports that he and his wife have reached a major milestone and have paid off all credit card debt. Congratulations! In this post he wonders what they will do next: Consumer Debt Paid Off – Now What?

Car Negotiation Coach recommends getting quotes from both local dealers and CarsDirect in this post: CarsDirect Guarantee: Beware the fine print.

College for 10k shares A Few of My Favorite Things.

Consumer Boomer tells us How to Calculate Your Credit Card APR.

Smithee at Consumerism Commentary, having worked at Bank of America in customer service once upon a time shares some insight into interchange fee revenue in Weep Not for Interchange Fee Revenue.

Elle at Couple Money says keep records of all phone and emails that you have with the bank and shares why in Stay on Top of Your Bank.

Credit Card Chaser shares a news story about a 15 Year Old Boy Caught with 100’s of Skimmed Credit Card Numbers and shares a video on how credit card skimming works.

Darwin’s Money tells us about Things You Should Charge To Your Credit Card and Things You Should Never Buy on Credit.

Digging Out From Our Mess shares her experience with Peer to Peer Lending

Deliver Away Debt shares a few ways to keep track of your daily expenses in The Debt Destroyer – Capture Daily Expenses.

Early Retirement Extreme shares what he freely admits may be considered a “contrarian post” in The Secret of Education. I see a lot of people that believed the “meme” he discusses and unfortunately held themselves back from greater success simply because they didn’t have a degree.

Engineer your Finances interviews Jeffrey Fox author of the book How to Be a Fierce Competitor.

Eventual Millionaire shares How I Handle an Irregular Income.

Everyday Tips and Thoughts shares a few examples of  Why Do Some People Want Others To Fail?

Financial Samurai wonders Should I Refinance Now? Does A Bear Poop In The Woods?

Financially Poor offers one suggestion to The Path To Financial Freedom: Start Counting.

Free From Broke asks this question with regards to the Credit CARD Act of 2009: Are Personal Credit Cards Better for Your Business?

Frugal Confessions shares Restaurant Hacks: Your Money Saving Guide to Discount Dining.

Frugal Zeitgeist has been trying to keep up with the Insanity workout and shares this update: Insanity Week 9 (Day 63) Final Fit Test Results.

Funny About Money takes us with her on a day trip in Quick Summer Break…and maybe many more.

Girl With the Red Balloon responds to an anonymous commenter of a previous post in How Our Parents Shape Our Marital Finances.

Inexpensively shares a list of things to buy for school, including what we need to buy new, what can be used, and what not to splurge on in Back to School Shopping Guide

Invest it Wisely asks Should I Go with a Fixed or Variable Rate Mortgage?

Len Penzo shares another hilarious recounting in My Teenage Son, His Cell Phone, and the Bill for $1,055.20. Thank goodness he signed up with T-Mobile, my favorite cell phone provider.

Little House in the Valley’s little sister recently announced her engagement and Little House put together a Bliss Box for the couple, and now she is looking for some more input for the final product: Bliss Box Quiz.

Maximizing Money shares a nice list of Birthday Freebie Offers and Birthday Deals List.

Miss Thrifty shares Six Top Tips from Yorkshire’s Thriftiest Grannies.

Monevator shares Weekend Reading: The New Gold Rush.

Money Beagle was named beneficiary to a small life insurance by his grandma and reminisces about 1943 in It Was November of 1943.

Money Green Life realized not everyone knows exactly what certain financial terms mean and put it all together for us in 9 Key Financial Terms Explained.

Money Help for Christians talks about selling your car or house if you can no longer afford it in Can You Afford Your Car Payments? Can You Afford the House?

Money Reasons ponders Are Kids Being Raised The Best They Possibly Could Be? I always say it’s an experiment when raising children. We can go with what Dr. Spock told us, or maybe we prefer the methods of Dr. Sears. The end result is going to be different, and we just have to do our best and hope for the best.

Money Crush and her husband are paying off their mortgage early and tells us why in Why We’re Paying Off Our Mortgage Early. Awesome!  I plan to start tackling our mortgage after the credit cards are paid off!  Our mortgage is too small to make an impact on our income taxes so that’s not a concern for us.

My Financial Objectives is Considering a Second Job working as as a car salesman part time.  He anticipates making an extra $4000 per month. Too bad I already know I could never be a car salesman, since that’s almost double what I make in a month already. Sounds like a great opportunity!

My Journey to Millions tells us What does your Tax Return Say About You and Your Financial Health?

Narrow Bridge begins a post series called Starting a Small Business.

Nerd Wallet asks Discover Acceptance Hits 90%. Does Discover Escape Finally Deserve Consideration?

Not Made of Money shares 10 Essential Tips for Keeping Your Personal Finances Organized. My favorite of the ten is eliminate bills for services you aren’t using.

One Money Design asks Can You Afford to Send Your Kids to Private School? and shares some of the options for making that choice more affordable.

Peak Personal Finance warns us to make sure that offer isn’t actually deferred in No Interest for 12 Months? Watch Out: It’s Deferred.

Personal Finance by the Book interviews a family who bought a used car for cash sharing this motivational story: This Family Paid Cash For Their Car; You Can Too!

PF Firewall shares a great trick to discouraging ourselves from spending too much money while in the store. Ack. Just thinking about it makes me feel uncomfortable I must admit: You Can’t Spend What You Don’t Have With You.

Personal Finance Journey admits she’s a little bit Theodore and a little bit Simon and asks us to compare ourselves to the chipmunks in this cute rundown of the Financial Profiles from Alvin & the Chipmunks.

Planting Dollars says we’re already rich if we’re living in America in How Long Do I Have to Act Poor Until I’m Rich?

Punch Debt in the Face dares us to share in If You Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine. He paid for his honeymoon in this cycle so his bill is way up there.

Rainy Day Saver talks about Finding Fulfillment in Life.

Redeeming Riches asks Should You File For Credit Card Bankruptcy?

Retirement Investing Today shares The Real Pay Cuts Begin – Average UK Earnings – July 2010 Update.

Saving Money Today reveals how much much he’s spent shopping at Amazon and some of what he’s bought in: I’ve Spent $2703.59 at Amazon! I also encouraged SMT to go through someone’s affiliate account before purchasing, hopefully he’ll consider using mine.

Single Mom, Rich Mom lists some of the signs that Mel is in financial deep water in Mel Gibson Blows It (Money, that is).

Smart On Money says to make saving a priority in Personal Finance Basics: Pay Yourself First.

Squirrelers gives a few things to consider when relocating and asks how much money you’d need to be offered to make a move to a new job 1000 miles away in How Much Money Would it Take for You to Relocate?

Sustainable Life Blog says everyone is missing the point – buy yourself a water bottle instead of buying thinner plastic water in bottles in Saving the Environment with Thin Plastic.

Sweating the Big Stuff shares an update from “Sally” who he wrote about a few months ago in Motivational Story: From Dog Walking to Ivy League.

The Amateur Financier shares pros and cons in seeking your fortune abroad in Should You Outsource Yourself?

Kelly at  The Centsible Life has her kids enrolled in swimming lessons and had to jump in to rescue her youngest and shares in Swim Lessons and Drowning Fears.

The Millionaire Nurse Blog tells how our perspective changes depending on our age in Wisdom Shared.

The Saved Quarter was given a gift certificate to The Container Store by one of her visitors and thanks all of her visitors to her blog in A Great Big Thank You!

Wealth Artisan talks about the tiny house called the Tumbleweed the builder of which ended up with a successful company based on building tiny houses in The 89 Square Foot Home.

Ultimate Money Blog tells us we should stop dwelling on the negative, stop over planning and focus on the day in Living in the Present.

Watson Inc. shares that he’s Ticked Off At Murphy, Yakezie Round Up, & Uncommon Money News.

Wealth Pilgrim tells us How To Make Your Small Business More Successful.

Well-Heeled Blog shares a few methods to counteract “I-want-buy-itis” in How to Talk Yourself Out of Buying and Spending. Of the methods listed, the main one I use is The Big Goal Factor which is paying down our credit card debt.

Young and Thrifty gives us a rundown on Good Debt vs Bad Debt with a few examples and scenarios.

Tight Fisted Miser has been Showering in the Dark to save an estimated one penny on electricity… and he’s going to try to limit his showers to ten minutes.

Financial Bondage shares his personal view on health care in Health Insurance for the Self-Employed.

Personal Dividends shares 7 Fun, Frugal Dates to Keep Your Relationship Going. I wish we lived nearby a body of water, I like the thought of going to the beach.

Wealth Informatics tells us how to How to Save Money with Discount, Cheap, Unrestricted Movie Tickets!

Live Real, Now shares 5 Life Altering Lessons I Learned From My Debt. My favorite is “The things I care about do not cost money.”

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Thanks for stopping by and please come back to see the roundup!

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So I thought.

This morning, on a whim I decided to open the Chase mail that arrived yesterday.  Oh goodie!  My line of credit has been increased to $12,500 from $9,500.  Not like I’m going to use it.

Then I saw that the bill had arrived, so I decided to have a look at it also.

I was a little more than annoyed when I saw that a late fee for $39 had been assessed!

I know how this happened. When I pay the bill three weeks ahead of time I sometimes loop into the wrong billing cycle.  I usually schedule this payment to happen around the 25th of the month, and I must have forgotten to do that last month.

However, since the Great Backup Accident of 2010 wiped out all my data during that time period, there is no way to know what I actually planned to do. I already can see what I actually did online, and that is made a payment on the 13th of June. If that payment had been made on the 25th of June, I would have been just fine. Instead, I ended up with two payments in the last billing cycle.

I had a couple of minutes before I had to get ready for work, so I decided to put in a call and see if I could alleviate the stress I was feeling due to being charged $39 for a stupid mistake. I know I haven’t paid late on this card, so I planned to ask and have the fee reversed.

I got a nice young man on the phone, I think he said his name was Hussein.  He spoke relatively good English and I explained my problem, and got right to the point and asked if I could have the fee reversed. First he gave me a little speech about all the ways that I could make my payment on time, I could make a payment by phone, he could send me the paperwork to set up an automatic payment, etc., etc., etc.  Finally he said he was reversing the fee that had been charged and it would take a few days to show up in my account.

He asked about taking my payment and I told him I could do it online, unless he just wanted to take the information for me. He said he could do that, so I made more than a double payment ($300).  I told him I would set up automatic payments immediately and I did right after I hung up.

I also asked to make sure my interest had not been affected. It is still at 8.99%.

Whew.

I am going to make a point to make sure I have autopay set up on the remaining credit cards so this doesn’t happen again.

I hate when this happens. It makes me feel irresponsible! I will be sooooo glad when these stupid credit cards are paid in full!

When I make the final tally this weekend we should be in high $16,000 range.

Have you ever run into the problem of paying the bill too early in the cycle and had this problem?

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I did contact a local company, Data Doctors, to see if it would be possible to retrieve data from my hard drive, and found since the backup was a full clone, the chances were very slim. They did say they could analyze the drive for $149 to see if the data could be retrieved.  If it looked feasible, the costs would run into the hundreds. I remember feeling faint at hearing “fourteen hundred dollars” at one point during the conversation.

Earlier in the day I’d told Mr. A that I might consider spending $500 to retrieve the data, but $1400 was not even going to be considered.

So my next thought was to find out if the photos from my camera card could be retrieved. As long as I hadn’t taken enough new photos to write over the deleted ones, there was a chance.  The analyzing would cost $59 and if the photos were retrievable, it would cost upwards of $350 to get them back. That wasn’t going to happen either.

The only photos of importance were photos of my friend’s baby shower (the one who recently had triplets) and Big A’s 23rd birthday party.

I was more upset about losing my friend’s photos, since she’d asked me to take a picture of her entire family.

During the darkness, I did an Internet search and found a program named Card Recovery which sounded very promising.  Even better, they let you try their product to see if your photos can be retrieved with a free version of the software before you even purchase the unlock code.  Very cool. I was very hopeful that the photos could be retrieved, but was unable to test the software until later in the day after returning home.

Finally I was able to check it out.  I downloaded the software and waited for it to scan my card.   Looking at the card using Windows Explorer, it showed that it held 733 files in the photos folder. I watched the numbers slowly increase while Card Recovery worked and I was cautiously hopeful when the number of recovered files rose close to 1000. That meant the program had detected some of the deleted photos!!

Even so, I knew the photos may have been overwritten since I had taken photos immediately after deletion of the ones I was hoping to retrieve.  Card Recovery allows you to preview the photos in the free version, so I began looking through.  Sadly, not one of the photos that I had hoped to find were present.

I started to feel terrible again, and I decided to call my friend.  The tears were falling again, and when she answered the phone I immediately blurted out how horrible I felt about losing her photos and nothing could be done to retrieve them. She asked me which photos and I told her, to which she replied, “The second time that you came by to take belly shots for me and my husband, you moved the baby shower photos onto my laptop.”

The funny thing is, I distinctly remember the drive home the first night when I took belly shots of her (when her husband wasn’t able to make it to the hospital), thinking how I should have moved those baby shower photos onto her laptop.

I have a vague memory now that she told me I did move the photos over of doing that after the second belly shot photo shoot.   She assured me that she has the photos and has seen them all.  The only thing she didn’t have a copy of was the large copy of the belly shots with her husband that I’d manipulated in Photoshop. That is easily recreated, once she sends me the original photos!

That was a huge relief.

I also came up with a grand solution to the photos of Big A’s birthday party that I lost.  In case you are new to my blog, Big A is my oldest son, and he has Down Syndrome.  I just love having photos of his birthday parties, which are tiny affairs, just he and his dad and younger brother.  So nothing big, just the memories as a family together.

Big A knows how upset I was, and so the next night, after I came up with my grand solution we had the following conversation:

Me:  Big A, you remember how upset I was about my computer the other night?

Big A: Yes, you sad.

Me: Yeah, I was really sad. One of the reasons is because I lost the pictures of your birthday party.

Big A:  Oh, Mom’s sad.

Me: Yeah, I was sad, but I think you could help me be happy again.  What would you think about having a new birthday party?

Big A: Okay!

Me: Okay, it’s a deal. We’ll plan to have a new birthday party for you in two weeks.

Big A: Two weeks!

So I’ll recreate his birthday party and we’ll take photos again.

Another aspect of the backup disaster addressed positively.

You’ll have to let me know if you use end up trying Card Recovery.  It sounds fantastic, and there are a ton of testimonials from happy customers.

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I’ve always admired those folks who have paper-free offices and would love to cut down on my paper collection. Unfortunately,  I always seem to get myself in trouble when I try to go paperless. That’s probably because there’s a right and a wrong way to do it… maybe I should research exactly how to go about it sometime. Apparently careful backups are part of the process. Ahem.

During those dark hours while kicking myself soundly I talked to my sister, who assured me that I could get a copy of our income tax return from the IRS.

So I went to the Internal Revenue website and found out there are three ways to get a copy.

First, you may order a transcript of your return, which is completely free. This transcript contains all of the lines of the return which you used.  For my situation this should be enough to recreate the return within my stand alone H & R Block Tax Software.

1. Obtain a free transcript by calling 800-829-1040 or fill out and mail in Request for Transcript of Tax Return Form 4506-T
2. Once the IRS receives your request, it will take about fifteen days to receive the transcript

The second way will cost you a pretty penny but will provide you with a duplicate of your return, including any attachments (such as your W2 or 1099).  In most cases, if all you need is a copy of your W2, it may be less expensive to contact the business or person who gave you the W2 or 1099, rather than to ask the IRS to spend time making copies for you. If you do determine that you need an exact copy of your return, follow these steps.

1. Fill out and mail in Request for Copy of Tax Return Form 4506
2. It will take up to 60 days to complete your request
3. As of today’s date, it will cost you $57.00

The third method is a Short Form Request for Individual Tax Return.  This form was created to help folks who need to have a transcript for mortgage purposes (obtain, modify or re-finance), and/or would like to have their transcripts mailed to a third party.

Since Mr. A is self-employed, I feel it is important to have a hard copy of our tax return, so I have requested the transcript. The IRS agent I spoke with assured me that every line which I used in my return will be included, so with that I can re-enter the data into H & R Block.

I will then be able to print out that hard copy, and this will also enable the program to pull the information for next year’s return.  I know some will advise me to use the online version of H & R Block, but I am not keen on using online versions of programs when a stand alone product is available. For what it’s worth, I did also contact H & R Block to see if they by any chance retain a copy of the return on their servers (since I used their e-file option) and they do not.

On an aside, I also noticed that when a joint return is filed, only one taxpayer’s signature is required to request the free transcript.  If you are in a situation where your spouse will not allow you to see the tax return (which would be weird, since you are supposed to sign the thing, and you should review anything you sign your name to), you can request a copy by yourself.

One more concern on the backup accident in the process of being resolved.

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Today’s True Confession is about computer backups.  We all know to do them, but how dedicated are you to keeping your data backed up?    I’ll go first.  I suck at doing routine backups. That’s one reason why I decided to sign on with Carbonite.

However, as it turns out, I excel so highly in not doing backups that I managed to have a backup accident during the time when my Carbonite backup service had been interrupted (by my own stupidity). This recent backup accident makes other backup accidents in my past pale in comparison. Let me share the gory details with you.

Every month once in a while, I clone my entire hard drive with second hard drive. The last full clone backup was completed on March 31, 2010.  Last week, I decided to do my monthly backup and set the program to do a full clone backup of my current hard drive.

About six hours later, satisfied that I was now fully and safely backed up, I opened Quicken 2010 Deluxe to see if I could figure out why my checking account information online shows that I have nearly four hundred dollars in my account, while Quicken (the last time I opened it) indicated I had less than ninety. All week long we avoided using the personal checking account since I didn’t want us to overdraw the account.

Once Quicken loaded, to my surprise, the information in Quicken was from March.

I thought maybe the hard drives got switched, but slowly it dawned on me that I was in actuality not fully and safely backed up.

I realized with growing horror that the clone was performed incorrectly, in fact, the data had been cloned in reverse.  Everything current (from March 31 to mid-July) had been overwritten with old data from March. Everything on my hard drive. Programs.  Files.  Photos. Everything. My heart skipped a beat and as it occurred to me that my Carbonite service had not performed a back up since April 7th (once again, user error).

Next I remembered that just ten days earlier I had moved Big A’s birthday party photos, and my friend who had triplet’s baby shower photos onto my hard drive to make more room on my camera card.

I inserted my camera card into my computer, hoping upon hope that I hadn’t deleted those photos.

Through tears of sweat (thank you hot flashes), as I began looking at my camera card, I noticed a folder at the root named BACKUPS.  The date last modified caught my eye: May 29, 2010.

Dear Lord, could it be?  Did I somehow make a backup of the data most direly important to me? I said a silent prayer before opening the folder, and with relief realized indeed, I had made an emergency backup on May 29th of the two company files for Mr. A’s businesses, my Excel spreadsheet and Quicken, the financial program I use to track our personal finances.

May 29th is better than March 31.  I still have to recreate six weeks worth of data in those programs, and I’ve lost all scanned documents pertaining to Mr. A’s business, and unfortunately my 2009 Income Tax returns.  I use H & R Block’s tax software and all that data is gone. I also in my amazing stupidity neglected to print a hard copy of our 2009 income taxes for Federal and State. What good is a PDF if it’s completely wiped from your hard drive?

On the bright side, I did make a point to print out all supporting documentation for our taxes, thank goodness.

This week I’ll be sharing some of the things I ended up having to do to recreate the lost data, so stay tuned since I’ll be sharing more of my pain and agony.

Love,

Mrs. Accountability

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