How much does a funeral cost???

[dis-happy]

Or rather, how much SHOULD a funeral cost?


My FIL passed away this weekend. My dh is in CA now and texted to say the funeral is costing +20k.

Personally (for me) I'm all for cremation and an ocean scattering. In the case of my FIL there is a big family/heritage thing that has to be upheld. But yikes.


PS. I texted my dh back and mentioned you could buy caskets at Costco. He said all the arrangements were made the day before he arrived.

 

[FlyingDumbo]

I am on the opposite coast, but we spent about 10K 2 years ago.

 

[msjprincess]

I'm on LI, my father's funeral was approximately $12K three years ago. But my mother's was $14K almost 20 years ago.

 

[golfgal]

We had a "budget" funeral for my mom a little over a year ago and it was $14K. It started with $375 for the hearse to pick her up at the nursing home and bring her to the funeral home-2 miles round trip. We had a 4 hour wake at the funeral home, a church service the next day with a lunch after in the church social hall. She was then cremated and I am not sure what my sister did with her ashes to tell you the truth. $14,000. Had she not been cremated and we would have had to bury her it would have added another $5k or so depending on the exact headstone and how much you put on the headstone.

 

[hereyago]

Or rather, how much SHOULD a funeral cost?


My FIL passed away this weekend. My dh is in CA now and texted to say the funeral is costing +20k.

Personally (for me) I'm all for cremation and an ocean scattering. In the case of my FIL there is a big family/heritage thing that has to be upheld. But yikes.

Sorry about your FIL. But who is paying for the funeral? Cause I am all for family heritage, but I am not about to go broke to make sure it's upheld.

 

[IDoDis]

When my FIL passed away 7years ago, DH and I took out a small loan for the funeral, not knowing how much it was all going to cost. There was a church service at a large cathedral with a pianist, (but the service itself was small), an hour long rosary at a funeral home, cremation, and the urn was buried in a cemetery (no fancy headstone or anything, just a small plate in the ground). It was around $3,700 for everything. I think the church service was free. We did have to pay the pianist and gave the church a small donation.

I want nothing big when my day comes. I'd rather have my family spend the money doing something fun -- like a trip to Disney!

 

[piperdown]

DH's grandfather passed away a few weeks ago; he had requested only the bare basics. Plot and headstone were already set. Simple casket, no vault, gravesite service, & closed casket (no embalming) totaled $7,800.

 

[simba20]

My brother's was around 11k.

Area Savannah, GA year 2006.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

The first time that you go through one of these as the person making the decisions, you discover that they can cost a fortune (hundreds of thousands of dollars), or they can cost only a few thousand. Everything is priced a la carte.

 

[RadioNate]

Is there already a plot purchased? 20k seems high but if there isn't a plot it doesn't seem horribly unreasonable. It's high but not crazy. I think we paid close to 15k 8 years ago for my grandfather. That was with buying the plot & transporting the body to a different state.

 

[Bell30012]

Sorry if it upsets anyone but my instructions specifically state that a simple cremation is all I want (After they are absolutely certain that I actually deceased. I don't like fire.). We have many billboards out here in rural Georgia that advertise this service for $695. I'll budget a thousand.

I want no one going broke paying for my box.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

I'm sorry for your family's loss.

My mother in law passed away in MN a year ago. She was cremated and then buried in the same plot as her mother (eg no need for a cemetery plot). We ended up paying about $6000 still for transfers, cremation, church service and general funeral home expenses.

One thing I'd caution (and I know it's really hard to sort through when it's your family member who has just passed away) is that the funeral homes try to add on SO many things. It really can be overwhelming and it frustrates me when they haul out the that their suggestions are the "normal" thing to do.
I happened to be out of the country when MIL died and my DH got suckered (not his fault, truly!) into a complete package because he was so overwhelmed. We're stuck with piles of leftover cards and folders, not to mention the upgrades on her coffin (to be cremated in!) and urn (that is now buried). If there is any way to have someone with him to make choices that are important to him/his family, it would be helpful.

 

[golfgal]

I'm sorry for your family's loss.

My mother in law passed away in MN a year ago. She was cremated and then buried in the same plot as her mother (eg no need for a cemetery plot). We ended up paying about $6000 still for transfers, cremation, church service and general funeral home expenses.

One thing I'd caution (and I know it's really hard to sort through when it's your family member who has just passed away) is that the funeral homes try to add on SO many things. It really can be overwhelming and it frustrates me when they haul out the that their suggestions are the "normal" thing to do.
I happened to be out of the country when MIL died and my DH got suckered (not his fault, truly!) into a complete package because he was so overwhelmed. We're stuck with piles of leftover cards and folders, not to mention the upgrades on her coffin (to be cremated in!) and urn (that is now buried). If there is any way to have someone with him to make choices that are important to him/his family, it would be helpful.

Because we had a wake we had to 'rent' a coffin for $1000 . That was the one thing that I was really shaking my head at--they "reuse" that coffin as far as I know and a plain, new one doesn't cost a whole lot more then that.

 

[msjprincess]

Because we had a wake we had to 'rent' a coffin for $1000 . That was the one thing that I was really shaking my head at--they "reuse" that coffin as far as I know and a plain, new one doesn't cost a whole lot more then that.

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to reuse the coffin.


nevermind I see that the outer shell can be reused

 

[roscoepc1]

My son's funeral cost in the neighbourhood of $12k, including burial site and burial.......HOWEVER, we live in a extremely rural area (ie lower cost of living), and chose less expensive items as a matter of taste...simple coffin, etc.

Anywhere else that I know of, you can easily double that number....

 

[golfgal]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to reuse the coffin.

I have no idea. I would assume that a 'rented' coffin would be reused otherwise why offer that option? What else would they do with it?

Ok, I found this : http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/e...nd Remembrance/Types of funerals/Funerals.htm

It was probably something like this.

I know there was a separate box that they used for the cremation.

 

[mefordis]

Why don't these people have the funeral already paid for? Don't they at least have life insurance? I mean, we are all going to die, people! If you are getting up there in age, especially, have money set aside for your funeral.

 

[roscoepc1]

Why don't these people have the funeral already paid for? Don't they at least have life insurance? I mean, we are all going to die, people! If you are getting up there in age, especially, have money set aside for your funeral.

B/c a lot of us can't afford it, what with feeding and clothing our kids, paying our mortgages, and having jobs that are no longer secure enough to lock ourselves into any more payment plans. It's that simple, and that unfortunate...

 

[msjprincess]

Why don't these people have the funeral already paid for? Don't they at least have life insurance? I mean, we are all going to die, people! If you are getting up there in age, especially, have money set aside for your funeral.

Because unfortunately a lot of elderly people are barely getting by.

 

[golfgal]

Why don't these people have the funeral already paid for? Don't they at least have life insurance? I mean, we are all going to die, people! If you are getting up there in age, especially, have money set aside for your funeral.

A lot of people rely on jobs to get life insurance, when they retire, the life insurance goes away and often by that time they don't qualify for life insurance any longer. I agree though, term life insurance is pretty cheep, but the drawback is that for 99% of the people they outlive their life insurance policy. We have some whole life for this reason and others but mainly this.