A budget requires certainty.
Uncertainty lives within a caregiving experience. How long will this last? How long do we need the money to last?
Unexpected situations also come up during a caregiving experience. A sudden decline requiring more supplies that no one predicted, recovery from a hospitalization that requires more help than expected, another diagnosis that requires another treatment plan (meds, supplies, products) all can happen. Sometimes, all three can happen at once.
Caregiving requires a different kind of budgeting and support for that different kind of skill set. In our Certified Caregiving Consultant training, we teach CCCs to help family caregivers develop three budget buckets:
Daily care
Crisis care
End-of-life care.
With these three buckets, family caregivers know which budget requires flexibility (daily care) and which require a set amount of money. We also have an interactive consumer budgeting tool to help you build your budget buckets.
I’d love to know more about how caregiving experience impacts your spending and your budgeting. We’re collecting your experiences as part of the case we’re building to show the importance of reimbursing family caregivers, the only care system without a reimbursement rate. Tell us about your experiences in our five-minute survey.
I’d also love to know: What helps you budget during caregiving?