Making funeral arrangements for yourself or a loved one can be an upsetting and expensive process.
Most people are not necessarily thinking of the cost or expense of this event due to its emotional nature, but with some creative and economical decisions it is possible to save money.
This article aims to give insight and advice into some areas where this money can be saved.
Most of these tips will have the underpinning advice of doing research, and shopping around. Of course, these tips are just guidelines of how you could possibly save money.
They are entirely dependent on your finances and how much energy and time you would like to spend organising a funeral, as understandably it can be an upsetting time.
Funeral Directors
Most people tend to use the closest funeral director to them, or one that their family has used for years.
If you want to make sure you are getting the best funeral director for your money, using a directory service where you can see the closest funeral directors to you and compare their prices.
It depends on how you are willing to compromise, if you find a cheaper funeral director and are willing to have longer travel times then this could be appropriate for you.
Using a service such as LocalFuneral will ensure you are sure you are getting the cheapest funeral director price.
Pre-Planning
If at all possible, making funeral arrangements as far in advance as possible will mean cutting expenses massively.
Although this is not always possible, and the death of a loved one can happen very suddenly, it is these situations that tend to be more expensive.
Services such as Funeral Planner help people make arrangements to pre-plan their funerals.
Obituaries
Obituaries are a publication, usually in the local newspaper, notifying people of someone’s death.
They outline details of their life and including details of the upcoming funeral to allow people they have lost touch with the opportunity to attend the funeral.
Obituaries within newspapers charge per word, although an important aspect of the funeral, it could really drain your budget if you are not cautious.
Being creative with what you are writing and making it as succinct as possible will mean getting the most for of your money.
Get someone to check your writing if need be and see if they can amend it further, just to make sure you are taking any opportunity to minimise the word count.
Urns
When it comes to urns, it can be very expensive to buy them via the funeral home. You can save money with urns by asking the funeral home if they offer any discounted urns or shop around by looking elsewhere, such as online.
This will also give you a wider range of options to select something that aligns with your taste and preferences too.
Websites such as Amazon stock a range of urns at different prices depending on your budget.
Opting to buy an urn as soon as possible will help minimise delivery costs.
Flowers
Similarly, to urns, they too can be very expensive to purchase from a funeral home. You can again, ask if they offer any discount flower packages or shop around and go elsewhere. Supermarkets tend to offer flowers for a reasonable price.
If you would like custom arrangements, going to a flower shop and comparing prices online is the best way to ensure you save the most money on your flower arrangements.
Hopefully these tips were useful and gave you some much needed advice on how to organise a funeral on a budget.
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