any money saving funeral ideas please

margaretclare

sellingmysoul666 wrote: »

i am going to have a look round here for myself

www.muchhoolewoodlandburialground.co.uk

This is what DH and I have planned for ourselves: http://www.green-burial.co.uk/default.asp

According to their price lists, this looks like a 'moneysaving funeral' if ever there was one! There is a saving because the same people are attending to the whole process, from collecting the corpse right through to the service and the 'wake', or whatever is decided on, in the Hall of Remembrance.

We have left clear written instructions with our solicitor and written it into our wills.

i am also putting "get myself a will" on the to do list

Yes, please do! Everyone should have a will, everyone!

HTH

Errata

It's a good idea to leave instructions in a will for the 'arrangements'. But I understand that the next of kin/executors can legally ignore them !

mary43

originally posted by margaretclare
This is what DH and I have planned for ourselves: http://www.green-burial.co.uk/default.asp

Thanks Margaret............OH and myself have discussed this ourselves and we both feel its something we'd prefer. I've yet to discuss it with my kids - I want to make sure there's no arguments about our wishes and what might be theirs, though I think they'd go along with whatever we wanted and we can add it to our will.

Vashda_Nerada

Errata wrote: »

It's a good idea to leave instructions in a will for the 'arrangements'. But I understand that the next of kin/executors can legally ignore them !

That's correct, I've seen it happen many times. The deceased clearly stated their wishes as to what was to happen upon their death and the family overrules. Even people who have prepaid their funeral it has happened with, as long as the family pay the difference for the new arrangements there is nothing that can be done.

Still, I think it's a good idea for funeral plans to be noted in a will and for families to discuss this to minimise the chances of things not being carried out the way they would want.

margaretclare

Vashda_Nerada wrote: »

That's correct, I've seen it happen many times. The deceased clearly stated their wishes as to what was to happen upon their death and the family overrules. Even people who have prepaid their funeral it has happened with, as long as the family pay the difference for the new arrangements there is nothing that can be done.

Still, I think it's a good idea for funeral plans to be noted in a will and for families to discuss this to minimise the chances of things not being carried out the way they would want.

My experience has been different - it has been that when no clear wishes had been expressed by the deceased, those left with organising a funeral were 'all at sea', with no idea of what to do. Things have changed over the years, with more options open to people but at the same time, an almost childlike belief that death will never happen and the possibility can therefore be ignored! The lack of religious belief has contributed to this. 'Twasn't ever so...for example, my grandfather knew that he would lie beside his deceased wife in the village churchyard, the church where they had attended for so long, where their children had been baptised. Knowing this, I never gave it a thought, until I walked in on a heated argument between my aunt and my mother on the relative merits of cremation vs burial. Both expressed their views very strongly. I made sure that both of them had their different wishes carried out when I had to arrange their funerals.

I have attended funeral services in church when it was obvious that most of those present had no idea of what was going on or how to behave in a church. Re my grandparents above, my DH's grandfather survived his first wife by 20 years, but they are buried in adjacent graves now, in a Jewish cemetery in north London, although he married twice afterwards. So people evidently did make these plans in the past.

I think it's much easier for those left to organise a funeral, if they have an idea what the deceased wanted.

There will be no 'family' to overrule my wishes, thankfully.