To think funerals are outrageously expensive?

[crunchymint]

I have been shocked when organising a funeral at how expensive they are. Even a basic cremation with no service costs a £1000. A very ordinary funeral will cost about £3,000. It is a lot of money.

[Thehop]

They’re phenomenally expensive if you use a funeral director.

[ShatnersWig]

While I agree that you can't have a funeral as cheaply as you can, say, get married, in many ways it is like a wedding in that there are lots of options and you can decide how much to spend or not spend beyond the basics.

[stevie69]

Agreed. I'm not having one.

[crunchymint]

£1000 is about as cheap as it gets with direct cremation. £3000 is still a cheap funeral. It is outrageous that people have to pay so much.

[NewYearNewMe18]

The cremation it's self is £75 (our three local boroughs waive it for childrens funerals).


You're paying for the coffin, cars, pall bearers, flowers, collection and storage of the body, embalming, make up, staff costs (leave, pensions, sick pay), the celebrant/vicar/priest, collection of the ashes, the casket.

But if you want to put your dearly beloved in a cardboard box, pop it in the back of your hatchback and lug them into the crem, then no one would stop you.

[crunchymint]

Where are you only paying £75 for cremation? It costs £750 where I live, plus if you need a Dr's certificate you pay for that and the death certificate. If I take the person in a van myself, have no service, no flowers, nothing, it costs me just under £1000. Apart from digging a hole in my back garden, that is the very cheapest funeral I could arrange.

[unadventuretime]

They are costly but I'm not really surprised. A relative's funeral this year in a rural area cost around 4k. That included cars for the family, the coffin and the priest, to and from the church, graveyard (50 mins away) and funeral tea (another 40 mins away). The priest, the funeral director, bunch of guys who helped carry the coffin, a 3 course meal at a small hotel for 25 or so family members and an open bar at the hotel. And the space at the graveyard and the headstone. I'm surprised it didn't cost more tbh.

[unadventuretime]

Oh and flowers! They were about £100 I think. It is a lot but it could have been done cheaper, the family just didn't want to and were fortunate that they could afford it. It's not surprising people want to give their loved ones a "good send off" though I know a lot of people say they wouldn't want their families to spend a lot.

[DonutCone]

Jesus unless you really hate them does anyone actually begrudge the cost of a funeral?

So it's £1k. They are dead. You won't have to spend a penny on them ever again. Plus most people will leave enough behind in either cash or stuff to cover the cost themselves.

[crunchymint]

unadventure That seems really cheap compared to costs where I live. It is costing about £3,600 for a cremation, one car for family, simple service at crematorium, ashes in a simple urn, cheapest coffin, buffet for 30 at a local hotel. And I have shopped around.

[crunchymint]

Cone FFS you are obviously from a well off background. Plenty of people leave nothing behind financially and £1k is a lot of money. Glad you think £1k is nothing and that everyone you know has money to leave.

[mariomadmum]

I've just recently paid for my mums funeral, it cost just under £3500 that was the most basic cremation, so no cars for family, no flowers no wake included. It's crazy how the little bits all add up, cremation & doctors fees were just over £1000, we were charged £130 for the undertakers to come out and take mum to the funeral home(?) because she died at home out of office hours!
Funerals are so expensive.

[RomanyRoots]

It's not like you don't know it's going to happen, you have a life to save for it and there are plans too.
You can use your own flowers from the garden and arrange them yourself, you don't have to buy them. Or you can buy loose from a florist and arrange them yourself, or ask for donations to charity, rather than flowers.
I know the necessary costs need to be paid and I suppose this is where the expense comes in.

[katseyes7]

l;m leaving my body to medical science. l have no family as such, and so far as l know, once they've finished with the body, the medical facility 'dispose' of the remains. That'll do me nicely. lf my organs can help others, great, and either way my body can be useful for research. lf nothing else it'll give them a good laugh.

[BiteyShark]

I honestly don't think they are really that costly. Yes you can go to town and do the gold plated send off but if you add up all the people involved in even the simplest funeral, the overheads such as crematoriums building and maintenance costs or burial plots to be maintained and dug, the cost of the officials needed for documents, ceremonies, coffins, cars etc I don't think it's unreasonable.

[katseyes7]

My mother died six years ago and because some people who were coming to the funeral work Monday - Friday (teachers) and can't get time off during the week, l asked to have the funeral on a Saturday. lt was an extra £150 just for that!

[DonutCone]

Nope. Not at all. But I think it's shockingly crass to be complaining about the cost of someone's funeral.

Most funeral directors will give you a payment plan. I don't think anyone should be planning a funeral for someone they don't want to pay for.

[BonfiresOfInsanity]

I think all in all my mums cost nearly £11k. The flowers were almost £1k and they weren't even that extravagant. Actual funeral director bill was approx £6k. The only extravagant part was mum's wake as we have a huge family. Watching the costs add up were astonishing.

[MingeUterusMingeMingeYoni]

I dont think it's so much begrudging as not having.

[CraftyGin]

It’s cheap compared to the costs in the USA.

[Sirzy]

It’s not about begrudging it, but a lot of families genuinely can’t afford it and that must be awful for them. I am “lucky” that my parents have just come into some money and have put it aside to cover for a basic funeral for them both so we don’t need to have the added worry of where to find the money when the time comes (a long time off I hope!)

[ElfrideSwancourt]

katseyes7 they do have a service for people who leave their bodies to medical science after they have finished with them, and as students we were encouraged to go to this.

[DonutCone]

Again, no one has to pay the entire cost upfront. You can pay from the estate or if they have nothing to leave you can set up a payment plan.

I just think it's very sad when someone can't have been dead that long as they haven't even had a funeral and it's all 'the cheapest I can get'.

[mariomadmum]

I'm not complaining exactly, I was just very shocked (I've never had to plan a funeral before) at how much it costs. And when you live hand to mouth most of the time, £3000+ is a lot of money! Our funeral directors wouldn't let us have the funeral until it had all been paid for because we chose the cheapest package. I don't begrudge paying out for my mums funeral at all, it was just quite shocking how much it cost.

[BiteyShark]

Maybe as it's something that you are guaranteed to need perhaps NI or another tax should be increased across the board so everyone gets a very basic funeral and if relatives want to top that up they can. However I suspect a lot of people would moan about it because 'they don't care who pays when they are gone' but I think that would be better than expecting relatives to find the money if there is none in the estate.

A few years back I paid £4500 for a moderate funeral (including gravestone which itself was £1000) for my DM. I didn't think the cost was too expensive really when you added everything up.