How to recover song that are "lost", itunes can't find them even though I have downloaded and played them before

Question

Does anyone know how to recover songs that itunes has "lost"?
I downloaded them, synced my ipod, songs were added and I was able to play them.
On a recent sync the songs are suddenly "not found" according to itunes.  I can't locate them in the itunes folder, so I have no idea where itune put them.  BTW-this is not the first time itunes stored songs in a random directory......  Since itune can't find them, they were deleted from my ipod

Answer 1

Look, I understand I still need a card attached to the account. The problem is, it won't accept my card because I only have 87 cents in my bank account right now.
If I had known there would be so much trouble with the iTunes card, I would have just put the cash in my bank account in the morning instead of buying an iTunes card (I didn't expect the banks to be open on Thanksgiving of course).
Apple will only accept cards that have a balance. The balance is so small in my account that it won't accept it as a valid card.
I'm going to have to contact Apple anyway to reset the security questions. That's obvious. Your answers were not exactly helpful. You didn't tell me anything I don't already know, but thanks for trying to be helpful.