I have a disabled sister, whom I am guardian for, and take her to all of her apts; do all the laundry, cooking, cleaning; and if she acts up or gets sick at her "rehab" work, I have to take time off work without pay, I charge her 700.00 rent plus 300.00 food money; and that leaves her about 300.00 each month to buy what she wants. Am I charging her too much for rent and food? She receives about 1250.00 in Survivors Benefits from our deceased Mothers Social Security plus she receives 41.00 in Food Stamps and an additional 114.00 in help to pay utilities. She was in an Adult Foster Care Home and hated it. this is giving her more independence and choices in life. I do not tell her what to buy with her funds. This is a 3 bedroom; full basement house with 2 full baths, she has one full bedroom plus two additonal full closets and a full bathroom all to herself. And can eat whatever she wants from the kitchen.
I "misspoke" when I said I charge only 300.00 for food, this includes all of her every day needs (toothpaste, shampoo, deoradant, pads, special food that only she eats-I don’t eat any of the food that is purchased just for her-pop, gatorade, frozen pizza for her lunches, trail mix, cereal, milk, lunchmeat, etc.) I do not charge her gasoline mileage, and have driven her over 2200 miles in the last 9 months. Gasoline is included with this also.
The 300.00 also covers 1/2 the laundry supplies. I do laundry every other day to keep up with this, she needs 24 hour care, due to uncontrolled seizures. She is happier here, she has more freedom, doesn’t have to eat what the Adult Foster Care staff cook she tells me what she wants, and bam, it’s on the table for her. It also includes home maintence, some of the seizures she has had has broken cupboard doors, ripped off a shelving unit off the bathroom wall, and we had to reinforce one of her bedroom walls because she fell through it X2. When I am home with her at night, I have a monitor so I can hear her throughout the night. We I can’t be home her caregiver is with her and she is paid 9.00/hour plus mileage for taking her shopping or just going for a drive. I also buy her dinner if we go out to eat. I just want to make sure I’m not ripping her off and make her life as happy and healthy for her
Ok, let’s look at the picture, if she was living on her own and had to hire someone to be there for her, someone would be paid 10.00 per hour, that’s 120.00 a day-she works and would need someone to be with her at least 12 hours a day–and more on the weekends. which in turn totals over 43,000 a year ALSO…someone would be doing her laundry, cleaning, cooking, taking her shopping (they would also be getting paid mileage). I work fulltime and have not taken any time off from caring for her, even though her case worker told me I needed to take a break too. I never tell her what to spend her funds on. As I stated, she gets over 300.00 and per small paychecks to buy what she wants, or go places she wants to go..
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