How Cheap can a Funeral Be !

Kimberley

No what money you pay in is yours, no interest charged, it's your own money. It doesn't matter how long or how much is paid in until the time comes, at least there should be enough to give her a decent funeral. Your interest family account i'll give a consideration to, i'll chat with my siblings about it..

AnnaV

What a coincidence! I was reading a really useful thread on the Silver Surfers' board about this http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=38891

They have some really interesting points on all things, but especially saving plans for funerals, which (like everything financial) seem a bit of a minefield.

There seem to be some wonderful woodland burials available, where everything is kept really natural, here are a couple of them:

http://www.woodlandburials.co.uk/
http://www.green-burial.co.uk/

And here's some info no donating to medical science, which is free, but you can't bequeth your body as theoretically it doesn't belong to you once you're dead, it belongs to your next of kin, so you need to let them know that is what you want:

http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/lifeandleisure/cemeteriesandcrematorium/medical.htm

I think you have to realise though that the funeral isn't for the deceased, it's for the friends and relatives to mourn and say goodbye. That being said, it would probably help your relatives/spouse if you had discussed what you wanted.

Kimberley

Of course the funeral is for the deceased also, i'd be bleedin annoyed if i didn't have a good send off..I know the family and friends are the ones to see it, but you have to send the deceased off..

Maisie

Kimberley wrote:

No what money you pay in is yours, no interest charged, it's your own money. It doesn't matter how long or how much is paid in until the time comes, at least there should be enough to give her a decent funeral. Your interest family account i'll give a consideration to, i'll chat with my siblings about it..

Kimberley I didn't mean that the funeral director CHARGES you but he pays you interest on your money.

He will probably be getting interest from wherever he saves(banks) your money.

You could be getting that interest (if he is not paying you any) on a bs/bank high interest account.

halloweenqueen_2

Even with a graveside burial (in a churchyard) you have to pay a fee for the church to be open for the register, it is then up to the individual vicar whether he/she will waiver the fee they would normally charge for the use of the church. I found our undertakers to be absolutely fantastic. the 'low cost' coffin is around £400- 500. With a hearse, family car, and removal of body from hopsital and bits and pieces its around £1800 - £2000 but that was a decent send off as well, we didn't go out to skimp.
Flowers were £150 for a coffin spray and wreaths are about £50. and seperate to the funeral costs.

Rage_in_Eden

ooooooh pur-lease ........... i don't want to see MY MIL in a trendy cocktail bar!!!! (don't actually want to see her much anyway.......) :rotfl:

Toothsmith: are you by any chance a dentist? or at the very least a very annoyed patient whose practice has just gone private (like me?)

Rage_in_Eden

My Mum had an account with the Halifax which was referred to as her "funeral money" - we had two cars and it was about £1,600 (1996). My eldest sister who was one of the execs still managed to complain - i said to the funeral director who kept ringing me up to see if i could do anything as i was the only person who would speak to them that my Mum would die with embarassment if she knew (probably not the best choice of words ?) - still, it was nice to see that my other two sisters didn't just challenge the Will but the funeral bill as well!!! Made me feel not quite so picked on

jaybee

My mother died last month. It was a hospital death and the undertakers had to go to Southampton to collect her etc. which was a round trip of about 70 miles.

At her request I arranged a cheap (!!!) cremation. The bill came to £1454.00. Still, I'm glad that they did all the arrangements etc.

Jay-Jay_4

me again :rolleyes:


Well I've spent the day 'funeraling' and have to say that it was a lovely send off

Someone mentioned the waste of a coffin for a cremation; I looked at eco coffins etc as I'm having one of those but the funeral director said that we should choose one of their cheapest ones which were made of very thin chipboard with a very light layer of varnish and plastic handles. It sounds awful but was actually lovely and I'm very glad that we chose it. The two were £250 and £330, we chose the cheaper one but they upgraded her for free to the next one up . On the subject of eco coffins, when I mentioned that that's what I wanted he said "I hope I'm not carrying you", I was a bit taken aback until he explained that 'fluids' and readily escape from them and that it's not very nice for the pall bearers..... I can see his point .

Anyway, our flowers were a medium size coffin spray and were £50. Very good IMO as there were lots and lots of flowers and the arrangement was lovely.

My prices seem a lot better than others that have been mentioned but we did use an independant funeral directors which is supposed to be more personal and better value for money. Seeing as we had lots of journeys, 2 limos, flowers, obituary, embalming, cremation, memorial stone and everything else that you would expect of a 'decent' send off, I have to say that we seem to have got an awful lot for that amount of money, it wasn't 'simple' in any way.

I hope that I get treated the same when I go... ya know.... plenty of flowers, crying and posh cars

weatherwax_2

Bogof_Babe re

To lighten the atmosphere (?), when I was mistakenly (thank goodness) diagnosed with cancer, having been rushed into hospital with what turned out to be operable, my husband was talking to me about where I'd be buried (next to his mum so he could tend the graves at the same time ), I said he must arrange a wake at the pub, with food etc. as people might have travelled and would be expecting it. He said beggar that, he wasn't going to bother, and I got really upset. More upset than I was about the prospect of dying, actually. :cool:

Hafta say, if my OH said that to me I'd be plotting to make damn sure he went first! :eek: