Shopping and Grocery List

Although most people could create their own Grocery List template in a matter of minutes, I spent a few hours trying to come up with a template that was highly functional and useful. I ended up creating two different types of lists, (1) a blank Shopping List that could be used for any type of store (including groceries), and (2) a Grocery List that includes categories with some commonly purchased items for reminders.

Grocery List

Interest-Only Mortgage Loan Calculator

Interest-Only MortgageBy request, I created a new loan calculator specifically for fixed-rate interest-only mortgage loans. It is based on my amortization schedule template, but allows you to enter the IO period in years and make extra payments during that time. At the end of the IO period, the loan is amortized using the current balance and number of years remaining.

Ideal Weight Chart

Ideal Weight ChartI've added a new spreadsheet that includes a table, chart, and calculator for estimating your ideal weight. The Ideal Weight Chart uses the BMI, Devine, Robinson, and Miller formulas - all on the same graph - so it is fairly easy to compare them.

The chart uses a special trick for creating the shading that highlights the overweight, normal, and underweight regions based on the BMI (body mass index). The shaded regions are created using a stacked area chart, but because I wanted the gridlines on TOP of the areas, I made two different charts, superimposed over each other, with the area chart on the bottom. The top graph has the backgrounds turned off so that the colors from the area chart show through. (This technique was also described in a comment on this site). I don't really like having to use this approach, but other than creating a bunch of dummy series to use as the gridlines, I don't know of another approach.

Update (2/12/09): Excel Charts expert and MVP Jon Peltier gave me a great suggestion - to make the gridlines using error bars with a dummy series. Now why didn't I think of that?

Update (2/13/09): Created a BMI Chart using the same chart techniques as for the ideal weight charts.