Morbid subject I know, but one that cannot be ignored.
Given a crematorium jobby, one car and the usual mdf coffin with oak prices!! has anybody had any recent experience or has any information regarding costs please.
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Not recently thankfully Martin but i had to arrange several 10 to 20 years ago, costs from about £1.5K upwards then, all except my late brother were burials.
As a general comment we use a long standing family owned and still is, many are not despite appearing so, funeral directors in Northampton.
Most important to those left bereft is that all is handled well in a quiet background way, the funeral director in charge should be someone solid who takes charge of everything, such a person the patriarch of this particular place was of great comfort to my late mother when my father died, a firm hand and someone to lean on whilst i and my late brother carried our father....he himself has now died, but his sons carry on in exactly the same old fashioned manner.
Hope this day goes as well as these things can.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sun 17 Jul 11 at 12:56
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Total approx cost to bury my dad last year was £4200.
That was for a cheap but cheerful coffin, hearse, cremation, wooden ashes casket, church ceremony, burial fee (buried with his grandfather), and wake. Oh, and for an announcement in the obituary column of the local newspaper.
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It is often less expensive to let the funeral director place the obituary in the local paper, particularly if they have a standard charge for this.
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>> It is often less expensive to let the funeral director place the obituary .....
We let them do it. In hindsight it would have been cheaper for us to have arranged it ourselves as you pay per word. A good third of the wording was taken up with the funeral directors details (basically free advertising for them) of where to send any donations to.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 17 Jul 11 at 18:58
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>>Total approx cost to bury my dad last year was £4200.>>
That's just under twice as much as it cost for the equivalent requirements for the funeral of my late wife two years ago.
It was arranged by a local independent funeral director who, unlike the majority of other funeral directors in the town, is not part of a co-operative.
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Stuart,
I went to an "indie" as well - very personal service from day 1 to well after the funeral...
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>> That's just under twice as much as it cost for the equivalent requirements for the funeral of my late wife two years ago.
>> It was arranged by a local independent funeral director who, unlike the majority of other
funeral directors in the town, is not part of a co-operative.
You're probably right. We used a local director who is part of www.dignityfunerals.co.uk. On the whole they've got a good reputation, but we didn't shop round to compare prices. They gave us an estimate, my dad's life insurance policy was enough to cover it, along with a small amount of money left over to sort out any outstanding debts. Bottom line is that there was sufficient money left to bury him, but at a time when you're grieving, who cares what it costs to bury a loved one. Just get on with it and worry about the bills later.
Ultimately though, make sure you're sufficiently covered (ie, have a good life insurance policy, or plenty of savings put by) so as not to leave anyone else financially embarrassed.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 18 Jul 11 at 01:20
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>>On the whole they've got a good reputation, but we didn't shop round to compare prices.>>
Neither did I. The funeral director in question has dealt with several family funerals over the years and provides a caring and dignified service at what is always a difficult time.
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For a simple cremation as outlined expect to pay around £1,500
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Black bag, purchase of a heavy chain, hire of small motor boat.
That'll do for me!
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My mother and I together with an old family friend who had recently been widowed, arranged my father's funeral. Although I can remember a lot of what we discussed, I just have a complete blank when I try to remember the cost. What I do remember though is that there were considerable variations in price. We talked to three separate funeral directors - two of them were within $1,000 of each other but the other one was more than twice as expensive as the other two....
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Could always have a 'green' burial like my mate did, he seemed quite happy with it.
www.thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk/p/burials
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My late wife had a coffin woven from osiers and decorated with interwoven flowers which looked well on the day. One doesn't have to have a coffin of any sort, it is just that our culture expects it. It would probably be regarded as distasteful but it is not illegal to offer a corpse for cremation, or burial, in a large cardboard box. Costs nothing, burns or degrades well and the money saved could be used some good cause of one's choice.
Option which might meet both taste and cost are here
www.naturalendings.co.uk/buy-coffin-now.asp
and
Coffin covers are a very affordable option for families who want the look of a traditional coffin without the steel, lacquered wood, and waste that go with it. A coffin cover slips over a biodegradable cardboard box. The cardboard box goes into the ground or on to cremation while the coffin cover can be re-used.
Last edited by: Meldrew on Sun 17 Jul 11 at 15:04
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One of the options we were offered was a coffin made out of recyclable material - I think from memory it was some type of cardboard. We didn't like the look of it and opted for one of the cheaper wooden coffins instead (without any fancy metalwork, as he was to be cremated). It just looked that little bit better and, as I know my father wouldn't have wanted anything too fancy and didn't like waste, it was just right. It was what he would have wanted....
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My father had his ashes spread over the North Sea,mother had a insurance I don't think it was cheap.
A bit of a unusual story for me anyway somebody who I used to work with had his wife buried in his backgarden.Head stone and the works.
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>> A bit of a unusual story for me anyway somebody who I used to work
>> with had his wife buried in his backgarden.Head stone and the works.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slw08b3bHFE
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About £3-4k. If you use a Co-Op funeral director then you get shedloads of Co-Op points if you're a member.
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Around 5k for burial....
"you get shedloads of Co-Op points if you're a member"
I find that quite amusing in a strange way.
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>> Around 5k for burial....
>>
>> "you get shedloads of Co-Op points if you're a member"
>>
>>
>> I find that quite amusing in a strange way.
>>
We thought the funeral director was joking at first! Granddad would have been impressed though, he always had an eye for a bargain.
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You can get anything cheaper on the web.
Basic funeral costs £850.
I think the top of the range "last supper'' coffin costs a bit more!
www.cheapfuneralsuk.com/OurCharges.html
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>> I favour a special import form Ghana
>>
But beware there is a list of items that cannot be included in the coffin if it is a cremation.
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£3.5K - I ain't got enough to bury me!
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>> But beware there is a list of items that cannot be included in the coffin if it is a cremation.
>>
I was enlightened on this subject by a friendly lady when I was organising my mothers funeral.
Some of the items may surprise you. I have no idea of the extra charges for non undertakers expert services.
The following site spells out a lot of this and is well worth reading and storing in the back of memory especially as these processes may delay the date of a funeral.
derrimanandhaynesfuneralservices.co.uk/cremation.html
www.newplymouthnz.com/AtoZOfCouncilServices/CemeteriesAndCrematorium/CremationProcedures.htm
Last edited by: henry k on Sun 17 Jul 11 at 20:26
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"A bit of a unusual story for me anyway somebody who I used to work with had his wife buried in his backgarden.Head stone and the works."
Some handy tips here on garden burials here Dutchie.
www.funeralhelper.org/garden-burial.html
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Funeral costs - -
