Frugal pre-paid funeral expenses?

 Hello. I'd like to get some advice about trying to set up something
that will pre-pay my funeral/burial costs. I'm going to be checking
out here at the end of the fall of this year. When my grandmother
died, her expenses ended up being around $9,000 in total for
everything (casket, transport, burial, etc).  I don't want my family
to have to deal with coming up with a whole bunch of money again for
these kinds of expeneses related to me.

I've got around $2,000 right now saved, and I'm thinking with work I'd
should have around $5,000 by late fall. Will that be enough to cover
things and not leave any loose ends? I'm looking to get some basic
plan that would cover everything, and that wouldn't have any
additional fees or costs down the road.

Another thing I'm wondering is about the process itself. I'm in my mid
30s, and we live in medium-sized town (between 75,000 and 100,000
people). If I go to a funeral home in the area and try to discuss
setting something up, will they act all weird about it or ask too many
questions about why I'm doing this? And are they bound by any
confidentiality agreement? Since we don't live in a mega city, I don't
want anyone to know that I'm doing this. Thanks!

  On Jul 16, 4:51 pm, bb90...@yahoo.com wrote:

If you are serious, why not consider cremation services? You need to
be the one to suggest it because the funeral homes don't make big
money on such minimal work. If you have the ashes buried, that's an
added expense for the plot and marker if desired. The cheapest way
would be cremation where a relative takes the ashes and disposes of
them. All the remains of my uncle's family were distributed in the
lake where they owned a cottage.
You could be like Mr. T.  His doctors said he had a year to live so he
gave away all his vast resources. Then he got well and had to go back
to work.

 
Even cheaper to not bother to collect the ashes at all.


This one looks like he plans to pull the plug deliberately, hence the question
about
how to avoid the funeral place getting suspicious about him paying in advance.

 
If you know someone's dying and they don't have a prepaid plan, need
to act quick.  The costs can double or triple depending on whether you
get the thing paid for before or after death.  It can literally be a
matter of minutes, checked against the time posted on the death
certificate.  I know some folks who found out the hard way...


--

The government is unresponsive to the needs of the little man.
Under 5'7" it is impossible to get your congressman on the phone.

...Woody Allen

 

My father died in 2000. He was also cremated.  We did have one set of
calling hours with a "viewing", then he was cremated after. That funeral
still cost over $6000.   In 1992, we pre-paid for a Great Aunt who was ill.
She died in 1997.  Even with pre-paying, and going without a limo, and one
of the least expensive coffins, it cost about $6000. It was the same for my
Grandmother at a different funeral home.  Opening (digging) the grave also
cost about $400 back then, and wasn't included in the price of the pre-pray.
We had to contact the cemetary seperately.  Most people don't realize it's a
seperate cost.

The only way you could get a funeral for a lot less would be with nothing
happening at all at the funeral home. No calling hours, no viewing at all,
just the service at a church instead.  That just doesn't work for many
families.  IMO, calling hours are a necessary part of grieving and dealing
with the loss. If you want to have a viewing at the church, then you have to
pay to have the body taken there by the funeral home hearse, then on to the
cemetary.

I know people disagree, but it's how we feel about it.  We've made sure to
have a certain amount of our life insurance left to the person who will be
making those arrangements. In my father's case, the funeral home knew about
the policy and they waited until it was paid out for their payment.  Those
aren't usually drug out by the insurance companies.

Melissa