Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I'm your host, Ashley Micciche.

I'm a financial advisor and co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisory practice managing over $425M in assets.

For 17 years, I've helped clients retire with confidence, and my goal on this podcast is to simplify the complexities of retirement planning so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying your retirement years while maintaining financial security.

One of the biggest spending categories for most Americans is food. Even wealthier Americans will still spend a lot of money on food - eating out more, buying higher quality foods, entertaining, and shopping at places like Whole Paycheck (er, whole foods).

Retirees spend about $7500 a year on groceries and eating out on average, and because food costs matter in your budget, I wanted to focus on that in this week's episodes. And I can think of no better person to discuss this topic with than my good friend, Karrie.

I first met Karrie about 5 years ago, shortly after her family moved to my town and started attending the same church we go to. OVer that time, we've become good friends. She also babysits my little ones a couple days a week, and we share a lot of the same views on things and have a similar sense of humor. At the moment, I'm working on arranging a marriage between their youngest and my 4 year-old, Theodore. I've offered their daughter a paid-for wedding, if only she agrees to marry my little man.

As the chief grocery shopper for her family of 11 - her and her husband have 9 kids, ages 20 to 4 - Karrie has learned a lot about saving money on food over the years.