Marsha, I am taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers. She has been living with my family for over 4 years. The only money we get from her is to pay her part of the bills (one-fifth of the gas, water, electric, phone, groceries, etc, since we have five living in the house). We get nothing to pay toward the mortgage, gasoline, or my time. I take her to the doctors, wash her clothes, fix her food, clean her rooms (LR, BR, bath - her side of our renovated duplex-into a single unit home), etc. We bought this home so we could have room for her. We still have our 2 br/1ba (bad economy), and that has sucked us dry... all our savings and my husband's whole life insurance policy. We've put more than $10,000 on credit cards (most of which is finally paid down) and borrowed $4,500 from my sister (still owe her).... still living paycheck to paycheck paying two mortgages.
As far as I know, there is no government program (or otherwise) to help pay your expenses. You "technically" cannot get paid for taking care of her because she is your relative. My suggestion would be (and something I should have done) is to have a contract drawn up where your grandmother agrees to help you with your finances (ie... rent, etc) at a set dollar amount per month, so that other family members (like my dead-beat uncle who thinks calling each night is enough) will not squabble about how much money you are getting.
You MUST take care of yourself in every way. You MUST NOT fall into the same trap that we are in. My girls are 10 and 6. Right now, we have no college savings, no retirement, and I can only work part-time as a substitute teacher because I never know when I am going to have to stay home take care of her... or better yet, be in the hospital at her bedside (she is a heart patient as well).
DO NOT FEEL LIKE YOU ARE BEING GREEDY!!!!! You must make sure that taking care of your loved one does not bankrupt you like it has me and my family.
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i would check with the dept of aging there is a payroll for you to take care of ur loveone
I am taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers. She has been living with my family for over 4 years. The only money we get from her is to pay her part of the bills (one-fifth of the gas, water, electric, phone, groceries, etc, since we have five living in the house). We get nothing to pay toward the mortgage, gasoline, or my time. I take her to the doctors, wash her clothes, fix her food, clean her rooms (LR, BR, bath - her side of our renovated duplex-into a single unit home), etc. We bought this home so we could have room for her. We still have our 2 br/1ba (bad economy), and that has sucked us dry... all our savings and my husband's whole life insurance policy. We've put more than $10,000 on credit cards (most of which is finally paid down) and borrowed $4,500 from my sister (still owe her).... still living paycheck to paycheck paying two mortgages.
As far as I know, there is no government program (or otherwise) to help pay your expenses. You "technically" cannot get paid for taking care of her because she is your relative. My suggestion would be (and something I should have done) is to have a contract drawn up where your grandmother agrees to help you with your finances (ie... rent, etc) at a set dollar amount per month, so that other family members (like my dead-beat uncle who thinks calling each night is enough) will not squabble about how much money you are getting.
You MUST take care of yourself in every way. You MUST NOT fall into the same trap that we are in. My girls are 10 and 6. Right now, we have no college savings, no retirement, and I can only work part-time as a substitute teacher because I never know when I am going to have to stay home take care of her... or better yet, be in the hospital at her bedside (she is a heart patient as well).
DO NOT FEEL LIKE YOU ARE BEING GREEDY!!!!! You must make sure that taking care of your loved one does not bankrupt you like it has me and my family.
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