How do people pay for a funeral if they cannot afford the average cost of $8,000?

Question

I am asking also what alternatives you may have for a decent funeral, such as cremation, etc. Thanks!

Answer 1

Funeral homes will allow you to finance it like a car or house. You do not need to buy caskets from the funeral home. By federal law, they must allow caskets from outside vendors, wholesalers and such. Those can save you 3-4000 dollars. Having a wake and funeral the same day can save you money as well. Also, having a closed casket minus the embalming will cut the price down as well.

Answer 2

I buried my father for $500 out of pocket and it was a NICE funeral. How?

About 10 years before he died, he gave the funeral home $2,500, which in turn they invested. Basically, he prepaid. Plus the funeral director didn't try to upsell up on everyting.

Also, we didn't do the expensive casket, etc. I'm amazed at how people feel that to honor the love one, they have to spend money on the most expensive items. Limos, etc. A funeral should be a time to remember the love one, not try to show off. Remember, a funeral isn't for the dead, it's for the living. The dead don't care.

You should do some planning now and know what the costs are before someone dies. Visit funeral homes, talk with them. I promise you that when you will need them, you will not be ABLE to do these things.

Also, if they are a vet, the VA pays some money towards the funeral. Not a lot, but they can get a grave site for free.

Answer 3

If the survivors cannot afford a funeral, whatever funds may remain in the estate of the deceased can be used, if approved by the personal representative of the estate. If there are no assets left and the survivors refuse to pay, the local municipality will provide the utmost simple of funerals.

I agree with others. What's the point of an expensive funeral ? I've advised my family that, when the time comes, they should dispose of my earthly remains in the least expensive mode available. If that entails cremation and a three pound coffee can in a closet, that works for me.

Answer 4

Cremation is more affordable in most cases. That's the way I am going to go... besides, I won't be here anymore, what do I care what they do with the bones... and why spend so much money on a pretty box. Who is going to see it 6' under? I know that may sound heartless, but funerals are for the living not the deceased.

Check with your funeral home and see if they have a payment plan regardless of what option you chose.

Answer 5

it quite is thoroughly ridiculious on the cost of a funeral. A wood container and a hollow is all you desire. My grandmother is ninety 9 and picked her coffin some years in the past. They have been exhibiting her satin pillows, satin lining, chrome and brass handles, etc. She exchange into so humorous approximately it. She instructed the funeral director that she would not desire her head to be on an costly pillow. She only needs her hair to look effective. And it is not important to her what the in the coffin sounds like because of the fact she'll never see it. bypass grandma!!! i think of her coffin ended up being $4000, she already has a burial plot, next to grandpa. The digging of the hollow will value $800 and a gravestone is $1200. The church quotes $one hundred yet will take much less for that is centers., candles, pall bearers.

Answer 6

They don't. They leave their families to deal with it.

I told my daughter I don't want a funeral. I want her to cremate me and keep my ashes in her home. Forever. So I'll always be with her. Watching her.

I don't see the point of an elaborate funeral, paying all that money for a fancy box that you're going to stick in the dirt. A bunch of people standing around crying. None of that for me.