It is set to start in October. I thought it would be at least $200, not $45!
Mom hates most of the food and some of it has made her sick/diarrhea etc. Also, the portions are very small and she is hungry a lot too. So a lot of money has been spent on outside meals for her, she needs clothes, pajamas, blanket, robe slippers toiletries, haircut and the list goes on etc. This facility doesn’t even have hand soap in the bathroom. The blanket they gave her was literally a sheet. Over the past month we bought her sneakers clothes etc. too. Is this really how it is? How do they think people can live on $45 a month? Facilities don’t provide all these things, especially Medicaid ones.
I have been having panic attacks for the past 24 hours about this as I have already been spending a lot on mom and I can’t handle all of these expenses all the time. There is no other family to help either.
What happens to these people who have no kids or family? How can they live w/ $45 a month??
Fawnby makes excellent suggestions. Look for clothing at thrift stores. Look online for any local beautician schools and ask if the students offer reduced-price haircuts to care facility residents.
Shop in bulk for food items that your mother can keep in her room like snacks, fruit, if the facility allows it. This will make up if she's not getting enough to eat with the meal portions.
Whatever you do, don't allow her $45 a month to go into her in-resident account. The facility will screw her on that money. You keep that money back and spend it on her snacks and soap and anything else she may need. It won't cover it all, but at least it's something. Letting the nursing home have it will mean she gets nothing.
As Fawnby mentioned you could bring in what you felt mom would need and that the monthly allowance she gets would not cover.