I was looking at all of Mom's expenses to try to identify any way we could economize. Not much room for that but I did think of a few things - every little bit helps!!!
Since the VA cost for overnights is pretty much the same as Maggie and Gwen, I thought we could try VA out for Friday nights. Then if anyone who has weekend duty can make it Friday (we could from time to time since we wouldn't have to be there until about 9:00), we could eliminate some of that cost. We'd always have VA as a backup. Best case for eliminating all of the cost for Friday nights (almost 14 hours/week)is almost $9,000/year. We wouldn't recoup all of it but might conserve some.
Second, lawn service and cleaning service: Drop down to once a month on both - saving $1,800/year.
Third, make a special effort to find someone we can swap the lower level living space for care. We had some "light" conversation with Maggie once but she didn't seem all that interested.
What do you think?
PS. Just to clarify, is Friday night the only night that Maggie or Gwen are not working but are getting paid, or are there other nights/times as well?
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6 comments:
Like these ideas. Seems like a good savings.
Friday nights: can each kid that does a weekend do the Friday night (starts at 8pm)? if so, that saves Friday 8pm-to-Sat10am Maggie cost (she does 8-10 on Sat) this is good if those involved can commit to that. fyi - my stays usually encompass two Fridays, I tell Maggie not to come in for her usual 8pm-10am.
Cleaning: once a month should be fine ... seems like kid weekend duty can include some cleaning
VA: seems like using VA for overnights would be wise, as unexpected time-off (like I do with Maggie on my Fridays and with Gwen on my Tues/Weds) then would not be a $ expense. note - i think va had a policy of 24hr notice, iirc.
Do we have numbers on the food budget? we may need some analysis there, as I see a lot of what appears to be waste.
my stays: if we could establish my stays ahead of time, giving enough notice to careworkers, we could save all overnight care$ as well as va care$ for one week ... daytime caregiver still needed as I am at work during the day.
caregivers: we should continue search for and use of additional caretakers ... lotta work, but could stumble upon more gems ... ideally, the one who wants to live in (in trade for service) and can be relied upon ... right now, we are too dependent upon a single individual ... she could split anytime if she gets better offer or if unhappy with $saving policies we implement.
answer to question posed in ps of post: when I am in-residence, typically Wed 8am thru Tues 10pm, the nights with scheduled caregivers are covered by me alone, caregiver is directed to not come in. since my visits are over two weeks, this means two Wed, two thurs, two fri, two mon, and one tues. this is big$ savings if we can arrange things that way. It is possible that when I am in residence, the va visits could also be eliminated. this has not been considered up to now because of our wish to get H. accustomed to the caregivers.
Well, there is a lot of money we could save by not paying for services we don't need or don't receive (in the case of Maggie and Gwen).
It's probably too late to change Maggie's understanding of getting paid for time off, not sure about Gwen.
We could cancel the VA for this coming week and the following Monday (prob need Tues slot since Jane you are leaving in the evening?)
We certainly don't want to disturb the good thing we have going and/or continuity of caregivers. What about canceling VA (but talking to them about any negative consequences going forward so we don't shoot ourselves in the foot)?
I think we're stuck paying Maggie. What about not paying Gwen since she got paid last week for not coming in and probably already knows she's not coming in this coming week? I've never met Gwen so I'll have to rely on others to predict negative consequences here.
Also thinking about going forward with VA for Friday nights starting this week but we'd have to make a very quick decision, make sure they had someone and have a discussion with Maggie first.
Thoughts?
I think cancellation policy for VA is more than 24 hours, but we can confirm. Mary Kay - I think the last time we spoke it was 72 hours. Is that correct?
I also think that even though we have set up some precedent with Gwen, I do not think it would be such a negative to lose her and replace with VA. Mom is just "accepting" her right now. I don't think there is any love lost.
Since she is Maggie's friend, probably one of the selling points of Maggie to Gwen has been "they pay you anyway".
Moving towards VA to save money is a good move but will require frequent and probably at times urgen communication. Also, don't think this really changes "local" involvement since these guys are always the back up anyway, but we need to establish real communications lines....who needs to be "in the know" and how is the best way to keep them "in the know." I believe we need telephone communication over care giving.
I can come in on Friday nights
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