What does a simple funeral cost in your area?

[BeauJangles]

13 hours ago, naominash said:

What is a cost effective solution if you can't afford either one?

 

40 minutes ago, other one said:

I'd have to look it up, but you can donate your body to science and let them use it as a teaching tool and it's completely free.

They will pick up the body from wherever you die and do their thing, pay all the cremation costs and give your ashes to whomever you select and it's completely free.

https://unitedtissue.org/whole-body-donation/

Looks like a very good offer for those who cannot afford another plan. Thank you for posting this. 

[Neighbor]

7 hours ago, BeauJangles said:

Knowing that funeral homes can and do fold for what ever reasons

So do insurance companies! BUT there are pretty strict State by State regulations as to how the funds are to be kept safe regardless. I helped many a family put funds into a revokable savings account in  a bank that we had made arrangements with to handle the funds under California State laws.  The buyer had the ability to cancel at anytime and get their money back. Trouble is if the buyer goes on SSI SSI insists that the accounts be made irrevocable or they count the money as an asset and that may disqualify the buyer from getting assistance. Government is always a pain.

I actually had many families come in to buy irrevocable preneed funeral plans because the local SSI  office told them that is a way they can reduce their assets and get help. I hated that. People that had no business spending the kind of money they were spending on a preneed funeral just to qualify for welfare!!! I remember my telephone call to the SSI regional  supervisor. His name was Mr. Skidmore can you believe that? I told him the policy was nuts that there must be some better way to help these people than to instruct them to buy an outrageously expensive casket without having ability to get a refund should they later need the money.

It gets nutty out there - just the way life is.

[BeauJangles]

21 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Trouble is if the buyer goes on SSI SSI insists that the accounts be made irrevocable or they count the money as an asset and that may disqualify the buyer from getting assistance. Government is always a pain.

It gets nutty out there - just the way it is.

The older I get, the more familiar I become.  

[Figure of eighty]

On 8/24/2019 at 8:27 AM, ladypeartree said:

We have a slightly different service her in the UK .. no tent/chairs etc people just stand  When my son died  he was only 22 and I was able to get a small grant from social services as I was a student at the time ( doing my 2nd degree ) It didn't cover all the costs even though I had the plainest coffin and only one flower arraignment for on top of the coffin ( it was no flowers by request and donations in leu  of flowers went to the hospital ward he working in as a nurse at the time ) The funeral director was a family friend and member of our church so cut as many costs for me as possible and there were no costs for the service as the whole church took part and even supplied tea etc after It still came to over  £3000 and that was 24 years ago !!!

Im sorry abt your son.

[ladypeartree]

It was his time for God to call him home 

[Neighbor]

Going back to costs: The funeral if there is one, or life celebration, or whatever one may have, may not cost much of anything. The local church body, the elders pastors deaconesses and fellow members may all combine to have a remembrance service complete with reception afterward at no personal cost to a family whatsoever. Cremation cost may be as low as $850. There need be no formal cemetery at all. Memorialization may be made in many personal ways at parks  and private property.

By comparison to the cost of last illness potential and even settling an estate it is a freeby. 

Choosing to have  a funeral director do all these services and choosing to spent money at a formal private nonprofit entity known as a cemetery or memorial park is just that a choice. It is one that need not be made at all.

 

But as a matter of choice and tradition it seems there has always been a wide variance of manner of disposition of the dead from a mark along a trail where one fell dead, to a rich man's tomb, and   even to one of the seven wonders of the world.

 

[Neighbor]

Ha, just realized that with all the cemeteries I have been in, with all their chapels and mausoleums with sayings and poems and carved scripture, I have never come across one that read "let the dead bury the dead"....

And; perhaps there is something more important in preparing  for future death than arranging for a funeral. 

[Neighbor]

"The Cost of Following Jesus

 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

So I will suggest that those that mourn over the dead need celebrate by proclaiming the kingdom of God even as they hurt for the separation from a loved one.  Thus the life celebration rather than a funeral and a song of worship of God rather than a dirge of sorrows.