Not going to lie, even in 2021 with all the Covid scare mostly behind us shopping is still complicated.  With the talk of new Covid passports to get into places, it is actually looking a bit like fascism.  I hope this is not the real case in the future, but either way, it is still important to get your favorite snacks during this time to stay happy.  It is all possibly about to kick off again, so if you have a favorite snack that you want to make sure you have for another year, you may want to hop in the car follow your local regulations drive to your favorite local grocery store and pick up some sweet lovely candy boxes of joy.

Things didn’t turn out like we thought from 2020, and in some ways they are a we bit worse.  Don’t worry, the government ended up still being a thing, but the civil unrest that we saw all throughout last year is most likely going to pick up even worse when our economy starts to tank again. There is still hope though and you should not give up on getting outside and enjoying life while you can.  That is why for the last few months I have been preparing to live off of what I have for a good long time.  There are some items that simply disappeared from shelves for months due to the previous lockdowns and a trucker strike that happened in some states.  It made me think about getting all my favorite treats and keeping some stocked up for the long haul

Just to be safe we ended up keeping a month or so of food stocked up in case we did have another real shortage.  I know that having a year’s worth of my favorite candy boxes is not a major priority, but if it helps keep the peace in your family during hard times then it now becomes essential.  It could be as simple as having Snickers in the house for a year.  That could be the difference between despair and happily surviving.  I know it sounds silly but we all need to do what we must in order to live a good life.  There is no reason to be worried or paranoid, but if you are able to store up extra food items in order to be safe and happy. I think that just being confident in food safety and having a nice snack can help keep things calm in my family. 

The truth is you never know what is really going to happen and my hope is that my extra food is only for natural disasters.  That is why I think it sounds silly to stock up, but lies can cause huge shortages and have already destroyed billions of dollars of food and livestock this year due to the dissemination of false information by our government and news outlets. So even if we are not in much of an emergency we could be thrown into an economic stop, where just in time delivery no longer happens and it is simply better to have more prepared than not.  But to each their own and I hope you have found my snack plan fun and helpful.  If not, that is ok, because we are free to live as we want for now.

Part of being in business is learning how to crush competition.  Sometimes the answer to this is simply by saving money in ways they are not! There are so many different ways to be efficient and to start changing the way our company works.  I truly enjoy being apart of victories and understand that our failures and lost money are a reminder about being wise and thinking about all the different areas of being successful.  Lately, with the bonus of eCommerce starting to become one of the biggest sales industries we have been working hard to be successful at shipping our items at the best price and most safe for our clients.  This area is something that we want to really narrow down our costs and possible competitive advantages against our competition. Now, I want to go over how we did this and lowered our prices to be more competitive. 

It can be the little things that actually end up being some of the biggest cost savings and that is no joke.  It turns out that tape is a big deal when it comes to shipping and getting the best quality and lowest costs are easier said than done.  To be honest I really only thought that packing tape existed in one flavor.  But there are different thicknesses and types that hold all kinds of different weights.  There is also gum tape and it is water activated and is much stronger and can be super fast as well once you program a machine to cut it to the perfect length. No way you could have told me this would have worked so well a few years ago, but it does.

The new water-based tape saved us using tons of strips on our regular packing tape.  This was because some of our products are really heavy and some of our employees get a little excited and go overboard on taping. But it turns out that in some cases it was needed with the type of tape we were using.  So we ended up calling up a packaging supplies store and asking what might work best for our company.  It turns out that for the cardboard boxes that we were using we could incorporate gum tape.  What this really did was cut back out the use of tape and saved up thousands and thousand by using less.  The new stuff costs more per strip but we were using 14 strips less per box! That adds up!

Now it was different because how you actually end up using a gum tape dispenser is simply having a machine that wets and cuts the tape to a certain length.  Our machine programs the legnth and width of each box that we use.  So we can choose to have it cut 3 pieces of tape and have it done within a few seconds.  It then is put on the package and it perfectly fits each time giving the perfect amount of tape.  Once we programmed the right lengths our team was flying through packages and we were super happy that they enjoyed not having to lean over and tape all those extra times.  It really can be something small that changes your entire company and makes you a dominant player in your industry. So keep an eye out!

How do you go shopping now?  It is 2021 and things are not the same as they were a few years ago.  The topic came up when I told a friend that I was going to the store to get snacks for the family. They immediately chastised me for putting lives at risk over snacks. Let me tell you that snacks are life and I am happy to take that risk in order to live a normal life and have a happy family. I want to let you know that the need for anything outways the risk of freedom and if you need to get some top-of-the-line candy boxes to keep the peace and happiness in the craziness that is 2021.

So many people are going too far into the fear that the news has spread.  We now know most of the news was lies last year.  Food is essential, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice are as well. It is when someone goes and tells me that any kind of grocery shopping is not essential that I must protest.  I live in the United States due to freedom and going shopping is part of that.  I take a massive risk of driving to the store. The risk of getting into a crash is always there and that is higher than any other health risk in the world. I say this to let people know that they are at risk of dying every day. It is a normal thing and we all have most likely been in a car wreck or no someone who has died from one.  No one ever says that we risk our lives simply driving every day but we do.

No one should ration food and that just blows my mind.  If your family is going crazy from being locked inside together going on a year then anything to save your sanity is essential. That is how I look at many things these days.  It is no one’s right to tell you what food is good and what is not. That is part of why we live in this country and that is the freedom that it brings.  Yes, that even comes down to the candy boxes we choose when walking down that lovely aisle. So indeed don’t let anyone tell you what food is essential or even come close to taking away the choice as to that. It could mean later on that some choices for food for your children may be limited. The FDA says aspartame and corn syrup are healthy. While so many studies show they are the worst things we consume daily.

Shopping should be simple and fun. It should be allowed anytime and there is no reason to ever tell someone not to go.  The right to freedom is involved and even in 20201when pandemics that don’t seem to be causing much harm are happening essentially has taken a different turn. So do not fret, but go out and be free. Enjoy your amazing groceries and don’t be afraid of news that is proven to be false every day.  We know now that the world is safe and that most of the lies are simply that, lies.  So enjoy living and go shopping without fear.

If you were anything like me during the COVID shutdowns, then you did more online shopping than you thought was humanly possible. (Seriously, at one point I could barely get out of my apartment door due to all the cardboard boxes that were piled up to be taken to the recycling bin.) If you’re still like me, you now realize how much of a mistake it was to fill up your apartment with somewhat useless junk that you really didn’t need in the first place. I mean come on, who actually needs yet another decorative pillow…. Much less 20 of them? After my realization of this, and seeing my final credit card bill, I decided I was going to simplify my life, and give the whole minimalist thing a try. I had seen a ton of influencers on social media rave about the benefits of living simply, and after the 100^th time of making my bed with a million pillows every morning, I made up my mind I was going to do this, even if it killed me. As it turns out it didn’t kill me, although it was extremely painful to let a lot of them stuff I had bought over the years go, rather it brought quite a bit of serenity into my life. And if you’re thinking about dipping your toes into the minimalist lifestyle, I would love to be able to share a pointer or two with you on how to make the transition. 

Tip number one. Find a friend who can be objective about your things. Let’s be honest, sentimentally is where neat spaces go to die. Sometimes it’s hard to be truthful with yourself about what is and is not truly “junk”. For instance, that slap band you had when you were 10 and haven’t worn since but kept because you’re sure they’re going to be cool again someday should be the first thing to make the junk pile. (Seriously, they’ll never be cool again, throw it away.) A friend, however, can come alongside you and help you see what should and should not be kept. 

Tip number two. Donate as much as you can. Just because you’ve decided to go minimalist doesn’t mean you need to just throw everything away. Plus, it’s not good for “going green”. Instead, start a donate pile. Let your friends and family know what you’re doing and ask them if there’s anything they’d like you to set aside for them. Then, whatever is left overtake to your local homeless shelter or goodwill. 

Tip number three. It’s ok to keep things you don’t use all the time. Some minimalists would disagree here, but there are going to be those certain items (Christmas decorations for instance) that you won’t use often but are still ok to keep. Just pack them away neatly and safely in some sturdy cardboard boxes and put them on a shelf in your closet or slide them under the bed. Out of sight, out of mind, but still there when you’d like to use them. 

Tip number four. Just do it. It’s one thing to talk about simplifying your life. It’s another to actually do it. And cleaning your house or apartment and getting rid of things here or here does not count. If you’re going to be serious about minimizing the amount of stuff you have, you need to just bite the bullet and do it. It may be a little painful at first, but I promise you, if you’re anything like me, you won’t regret it. Unlike all those online shopping bills. 

I really love throwing parties.  I don’t care who they are for but when they are for the family it gets to be even more fun. Last year we threw a party for my mom-in-law.  She was super excited to get into the retirement theme and wanted a special day.  So she let us know that this day was going to be special and that she wanted the whole family there for a day.  She planned out the entire day hour by hour and wanted to spend it sharing all parts of her life with us.  Now in reality it was a bit boring, but it was also very special.  Taking the time to learn from someone who has many more years of living is important and a wise move.  Now she loves treats and we decided to go to the store and pick up her favorite candy boxes and set up our own little surprise for her.

Luckily, I have a great wife who loves to plan and do these kinds of things.  She set the whole thing up.  Our goal was to add a surprise to her special day and with that, we wanted to throw a party at the end.  We planned for weeks to find all of her favorite foods and colors.  We implemented really cool birthday gifts that were all themed.  The main theme was to take her favorite candy boxes of almond joys and make the theme flamingo.  This was a rather crazy task because ti meant everything had to be pink and yet coconut-themed.  It was very colorful and cool.

It was my mom’s day so we let her do her thing and when we had time to sneak away we did.  We took those breaks and instantly made the basement a super special place for a surprise.  The first goal was to fill it with balloons.  So on the first break, we went down and locked the doors.  We then proceeded to blow up several hundred balloons.  This was breathtaking as you might imagine, and we made some crazy fun decorations with them.

The balloons falling from the ceiling were pretty cool.  This made a bed on the ceiling with a pull string.  The idea was when she went down the stairs we would pull the string and the sheet which was taped to the ceiling and filled with balloons would fall.  We put about 50 ballons in the sheet and packing taped it to the ceiling.  We also used scissors to cut the string to the right length in order to have a good pull.  This took some time and many strips of tape to get it to stay in the correct position.  We had to use the pinata and it was a cute sloth.  It was so much fun for her.

We filled the pinata with her favorite treat of almond joys and provided a nice bat.  It was a flamingo pinata and she loved it.  Then we taped balloons across the ceiling and had all her gifts surrounded by a giant set of balloons.  It was a pretty awesome setup and by the time the fourth break happened we finished it up.  Finally, it was our time to surprise her and it was incredible.