I have a terrible habit of letting my bills and mail stack up until it barely fits into its cubby. At that point, I usually throw out the junk mail and pay the most critical bills, and put everything else back into the cubby.

Last night, I threw out the junk mail and paid all the bills, entered everything into Quicken, and even balanced my checkbook. (I'd completely forgotten to enter a paycheck. And another paycheck had been entered, but no amount put in - now that I don't get pay stubs in the mail anymore, it's kind of a hassle to find out how much each check is.)

By the time I was finished, the only things left in my mail cubby were my car's new registration and county sticker, neither of which I intended to mess with in the dark and cold. I'll handle them this weekend.

I felt righteous.

After a few minutes of relaxation in the warm glow of self-congratulation, I decided I was prepared for...

The Taxes.

After all, this year wasn't going to be the nightmare last year was. We weren't struggling with an abbreviated capital gains form. It was mostly just the usual: Two paychecks, two interest-earning bank accounts, a few minor investments, the interest paid on the mortgage... Pretty much simple addition and subtraction.

So I started filling in numbers. Before long, I was done, and I was happy with the refund number that was staring up at me.

I felt righteous.

"Did you remember," Matt asked a bit later, "to include the deduction for the Prius?"

Nope. I'd completely forgotten about it.

But no matter! I'd go to Toyota's website and download the forms!

Toyota's website has a couple of certification letters that we'll need to print out to keep with our records. But no forms, and no instructions other than "See your tax advisor."

I tried Honda's website, out of curiosity. Same thing, though they did include a link to the IRS site.

I tried the IRS site. And still got nowhere.

I felt less righteous.

I know there's a deduction we can take because Matt bought a hybrid vehicle this year. But I have no idea whether there's a separate form I have to fill out or if I just fill it in on our itemized deductions under Other. And because it's one of those "up to" amounts, I have no idea how to calculate whether we get the full deduction or only a partial one.

So, I will be calling the IRS hotline this morning and finding out.

And then I will feel righteous again.

--Liz