Free TV Guide

For those of you who watch your TV (and yes, I'm one of them), television guides are great - but who wants to pay for them? If you read your news online, then there's no insert from the Sunday paper for reference. And, those TV Guide magazines cost money. However, there are free television guides for your local area, and your particular provider (dish, cable, antenna, whatever) at various sites. My personal favorite: iwon.com. Not that it's perfect, I just can't find a better one online.

Drinking Water

Research has shown that drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day can burn off almost 35,000 calories a year, or about 10 pounds. It helps if the water is cold; then, the body has to expend some energy to heat the liquid to the body's 98 degrees. If you don't drink enough water, one doctor reports, your body fluids are out of balance, you experience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain and loss of thirst.

How much should you drink? If you are not overweight, then drink the standard 64 ounces a day. If you are overweight, then some say you should drink an additional 8 ounces for each 25 pounds you want to lose. Others report that you should drink 1/2 ounce for each pound you weigh: if you weigh 100 pounds, then you drink 50 ounces; if you weigh 200, then you drink 100. You get the idea.

Last Minute Tax Tips

The photo at the left shows a group of folk filling out their 1920 income tax returns at the Internal Revenue Office. Things have changed since then: you can download tax preparation software at sites like Turbotax.com, and you can file electronically. If your adjusted gross income is less than $50,000, then you are eligible for free electronic tax preparation and electronic filing. There's an explanation of how this works at irs.gov.

And, while those taxes aren't due till Monday, for those waiting till the last minute: did you know that you could charge that tax bill on Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express at a reduced interest rate? Pay1040.com has all the answers.

Find out if you are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Maybe you owe the Alternative Minimum Tax: find out at irs.gov.

What if you can't pay the balance? Don't panic. SmartMoney tells you what to do.