Disappearing Ink

I am not the most organized when it comes to keeping track of my receipts. I have a bank deposit bag and throughout the year I shove fistfuls of receipts into it. At the end of the year I pull them out in wads and ritualistically go about unfolding them and smoothing them out so that I can categorize and sub-total them. It's all part of my carefully thought-out bookkeeping system.

Today I found a wad of crumpled up pieces of paper in the bottom of a bag that, sure enough, turned out to be a bunch of receipts from the IBS Las Vegas trip. I did my best to at least smooth them out before I put them into said deposit bag, and took just a brief look at them to make sure they were really all deductible expenses. I hate going through my receipts at tax time only to discover a bunch of stuff in there that I can't possibly convince myself was business related.

And, of course, more than one of them is little more than a receipt-shaped piece of paper with faded printing that requires careful scrutiny to decipher.

Why do so many receipts use disappearing ink? Costco is the all-time worst. Their receipts are totally blank within a month or two. Leaving one to only conjecture as to what it could possibly have been for and what the final total is.

I really don't think I should have to scan my receipts for my tax records. It just isn't all that convenient. I think receipt ink should be built to last. Especially from businesses that know their customers are making a lot of business-related purchases, like Costco.

Well. I'm pretty sure my receipts are still legible, but I guess I'll be investing in a receipt scanner... probably from Costco. Guess I know what my first scanned receipt will be.