Family Caregiver Time & Budget Planner

How this planner supports family caregivers

Family caregiving rarely arrives with a clean spreadsheet. Instead, new responsibilities pile onto busy lives, and the true time and cash commitment only become visible when burnout is already looming. This planner gives you a structured way to inventory every hour you spend helping a loved one—from bathing, meal prep, and medication reminders to the paperwork, pharmacy runs, and emotional labor that fill the gaps. By quantifying those hours alongside mileage and recurring purchases, you gain a clear picture of the value you bring and the financial pressure it creates. That clarity is essential when you want to ask siblings for help, negotiate respite care, or explore reimbursement through workplace benefits and community programs.

The inputs are intentionally simple. Start with hands-on care hours, which capture personal care, supervision, and homemaking tasks. Add coordination and administrative time; these are the phone calls with doctors, insurance appeals, scheduling lab work, and updating care plans. Travel hours cover commutes between your home and the care recipient, as well as wait time in offices or at dialysis centers. Mileage rounds out the picture because every trip has a fuel, maintenance, and depreciation cost, whether or not you claim the IRS medical mileage deduction. Weekly supply spending includes over-the-counter medications, incontinence products, adaptive devices, and groceries purchased specifically for the person you support. Finally, setting an hourly value for your time acknowledges that unpaid labor displaces paid work, rest, and relationships.

The planner also looks forward. Respite care hours represent the breaks you need to stay healthy—perhaps one overnight per month or a few afternoons so you can attend your own appointments. Entering the hourly rate you expect to pay allows the calculator to check whether your budget can support that relief. The number of family members sharing duties defines how the total hours split, and the burnout threshold expresses how many weekly caregiving hours each person can sustain before sleep, employment, or health deteriorate.

Behind the scenes, the calculator converts everything into weekly and monthly totals. The travel cost multiplies the round-trip mileage (miles per visit times two) by the number of visits and the mileage rate. Time value multiplies the sum of hands-on, administrative, and travel hours by the hourly value. Cash costs add supplies and the travel mileage cost. Respite spending takes the monthly hours you request, multiplies them by the rate, and adds that to monthly out-of-pocket expenses. The tool then compares the total weekly hours with the number of family members to see whether each person remains below the burnout threshold. If not, it flags a gap so you know additional help or schedule changes are necessary.

The MathML expression below captures the way total weekly cost is calculated. The planner separates time value and cash outlays so you can interpret the results either as economic impact or as a check-writing requirement:

In this formula, \(h\) is weekly hands-on hours, \(a\) is administrative time, \(t\) is travel time, \(v\) is the value you assign to an hour of your time, \(m\) is miles per visit, \(q\) is visits per week, \(r\) is the mileage rate, and \(s\) is the weekly supply cost. The first term represents the opportunity cost of your time, while the second and third terms add real cash expenses. The calculator layers respite care on top by multiplying monthly hours by the hourly rate and dividing by four to approximate the weekly impact. If respite hours reduce the time you personally provide, you can rerun the calculation with adjusted hands-on and travel inputs to see how the load shifts.

Imagine you provide 18 hours of direct care, six hours of coordination, and four hours of travel each week. You drive 18 miles per visit, five visits per week, at a cost of $0.655 per mile. Supplies cost $85 weekly, and you value your time at $27 per hour. You would like 24 hours of respite care each month at $28 per hour, and two family members split the duties. The calculator finds that you devote 28 total hours weekly. Valuing that time at $27 per hour equals $756 per week, or $3,024 monthly. Mileage costs add $1,179 annually (about $98 per month). Supplies add $85 weekly, and respite spending adds $672 monthly. Combined, the household faces roughly $4,479 per month in economic impact, with $855 of that leaving your bank account in actual expenses. Each caregiver bears 14 hours weekly, comfortably below a 20-hour burnout threshold. If your sibling steps back and you shoulder everything alone, the tool immediately shows the weekly load doubling, surpassing the threshold, and recommending either more respite or reduced commitments elsewhere.

The comparison table generated by the planner mirrors the following example. It demonstrates how three approaches change both time per person and cash flow:

These perspectives help you plan conversations with employers about flexible schedules, negotiate contributions from family, and apply for state respite vouchers. Because caregiving rarely remains static, revisit the calculator monthly. Increasing hands-on hours by just two per week or adding an extra dialysis commute can significantly change the total load.

Limitations are worth acknowledging. The tool assumes a consistent weekly routine even though hospitalizations and crises can temporarily spike needs. It does not estimate the impact on Social Security credits or retirement savings when caregiving reduces paid employment. The mileage cost is a simple reimbursement estimate and does not include tolls or parking. Finally, the burnout threshold is subjective; consult healthcare providers if you suspect a loved one’s needs will increase rapidly, as professional care may become essential for safety.

Use the results to strengthen broader planning. Pair this tool with the elder care expense planner to evaluate long-term costs such as assisted living or skilled nursing. If you reimburse yourself through a dependent care account, confirm eligibility with the dependent care FSA vs. tax credit calculator. When everyone understands the numbers, caregiving decisions become less reactive and more collaborative.