Funerals are among the most difficult events to plan and budget for, especially when a passing happens suddenly. It’s never easy to say goodbye to a loved one, but it becomes particularly hard when you don’t have much money to spend on a funeral service and the expenses that come with a burial.
Unfortunately, some of these expenses come from businesses that take advantage of your grief and the time constraints to make you overpay for necessities. Don’t worry—in taking these ways to save money when planning a funeral into consideration, you can still have a quality service for your loved one on a budget.
Don’t Buy Everything in One Place
Grief-stricken individuals often think that every expense must come from the funeral home or monument maker. However, you can purchase some things for far less money through other vendors. The following funeral essentials, depending on your loved one’s wishes, can come from different locations for less money:
Casket
Caskets are infamously one of the largest expenses of a funeral, costing anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 on average. When that sort of money isn’t feasible, consider purchasing a casket from somewhere other than the funeral home—search online for cheaper options. Even many retail stores have started to sell their own caskets to make funerals more affordable for everyone.
Ceramic Photos
Placing a photo of a loved one directly onto their monument or grave marker will allow loved ones to remember what they looked like at any point in their life. While monument companies may charge hundreds of dollars extra to set the ceramic photo within the stone, you can also purchase the headstone photo directly from a retailer for a lower cost and place it on the monument yourself.
When you do it correctly, this solution is just as effective and shaves some money from the gravestone’s final cost. Take your time finding the perfect photo to represent your loved one, whether it’s a photo from their retirement community or one that took place in their prime.
Consider Alternative Burial Methods
If the death happened suddenly, you might not have had the difficult discussion about their funeral wishes with your loved one. In most cases, you’ll have an idea of the way they’d like to be memorialized, but if they left it up to you, consider alternatives to traditional burials.
There are plenty of ways to make the funeral special, even if you skip a traditional burial and monument. Consider the different benefits of each method—such as the ability to spread cremated ashes at your loved one’s favorite location or to press the ashes into precious jewelry. By finding ways to save money when planning a funeral, you can instead use the funds to honor the loved one in different ways.