Our benefits.

I know our situation is not as bad as others. We just want to get all of the information we can.
My wife and I live with her mother in her mother's house. She has onset Alzheimer's and we take care of her everyday needs of food, medications, and doctors' visits. We also keep up the house cleaning and maintenance inside and out. She no longer drives and has a hard time asking to be taken someplace. She has always been a very independent woman. Most days are spent feeding the cats, sitting and looking at nothing in particular and watching TV. She is in very good shape and can walk very well for her age. She would be able to walk better if she would only get out and do more.
I am retired military and presently going to school full time during the day and my wife works at night. My mother in law is in very good shape financially. She has long term care insurance. She pays for all the household maintenance and monthly utility bills. We cover all the fuel and food and usually a lot of other incidentals because she is not with us to pay for some items. Even with her long term care she has said she would rather pay someone else to take care of her then to pay her own daughter for the same or better service she knows she can trust to be there.
We do not pay rent and we do not charge for keeping up the house and taking care of her. I think the value of our service to her is worth much more than the amount that it would cost us for rent and utilities each month. Her financial planner who is also ours tells us we are covering too much of the costs in the house. I was wondering if there is a legal way to show the exchange of services for room and board as an expense, so I may qualify for financial aid for school. We do not want to break any laws; we just want to take advantage of everything that we can as long as I am in school.