Mailing the story:

AutoMySQLBackup is a clever script that takes the pain out of setting up automated incremental daily, weekly, and monthly backups of MySQL databases. Its only dependency is the mysqldumpcommand, which comes with mysql-client. AutoMySQLBackup dumps your databases at whatever intervals you desire, and rolls them up into compressed tarballs. Then you can copy the tarballs to other media, and encrypt them if you wish.