Jim,
I will look into the home help program with our case worker. My husband doesn't wish to be on a lung transplant list either. His PFT's are still 65-75% (depending on the day, how he feels...) but he says when the time comes he doesn't want one. You can find more information at: http://www.cff.org/UploadedFiles/living_with_cf/Files/tax%20tips%20for%20food%20deductions.pdf (or go to www.cff.org and put 'food deductions' in the search engine). But yes we do save our reciepts, it's essential to do so in case you ever get audited. At the end of every month I take our food reciepts and total individual reciepts minus anything that is not a food product, and it's pretty easy, just take off anything that you paid tax on and most stores put a 't' or 'f' so they make it fairly easy for you. Then I record them on an excel spread sheet. I have 4 columns, Date/Location/Amount/Method, so i will put the purchase date, the store/location it was bought at, the amount spend on food, and how I paid (cash, credit, debit). And then come the end of the year, I add up all the end of the month totals and find the average by dividing by 12, (or however many months I kept the record for). After I get that total, which is usually about 700-800, I take off 25% (because I don't eat that much) and then take off 25-50% for "non CF" related food expenses. What is left over is deductible (and it's usually 300-400, and multiply that by 12 an you have your YEARLY deduction amount). Just remember you can only deduct above and beyond what the "average" person you age, weight, height would need. We even get a letter from the dietician every year discussing Mark's dietary needs, additional calorie intake, protein intake... so we have proof that it is necessary, if we ever need proof. I also keep track of protein shakes that we pay for out of our pocket on a separate spread sheet, but unlike the food, I use 100% of what we spend for deductions. Since if he didn't have CF, we wouldn't need the supplements. We are able to deduct anywhere from 5-8K every year. It's a good way to go. And then I just get 12 envelopes at the end of the year, put each months reciepts in them, put them in a big manilla envelope with the year on it and file it away.
I told my husband he should get a handicapp parking spot, but he refuses at this point. I guess we'll get it whe he decides he REALLY needs it.
Sorry I didn't write earlier, I work nights and sleep all day so that's what I was doing today.
I can email you the file of food/supplement decutions if you want a template to go off of.
Julie
