# Are expensive funerals worth it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015 "2014-06-04T11:49:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/41 "2014-06-05T14:27:42Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Are nice clothes worth it? Is yummy food worth it? Are vacations worth it? I guess. And having all of your blood sucked out & replaced with caustic fluid… its like roller coaster for the dead I guess… > [@Senegoid](#): > > It strikes me a kind of grotesque to have the family gathered around an urn of ashes, reminiscing about Mom. Well now, that depends. Was she a smoker…? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/42 "2014-06-05T15:46:11Z")
When my dad died, the family came together to quickly pick a funeral home. It had to be done, he couldn’t just lay there in the living room. Then we, me, mom and my two siblings, visited the funeral home where they walked us through dozens of choice I knew nothing about before that day. With four of us there, we tended to just go with “whatever is normal”, with normal being defined by the guys selling the caskets, liners, makeup services and everything else. Who wants to argue with family over those kinds of things at such a time? They even had cardboard coffins, which my mom would have gone for if us kids hadn’t made a fuss. She didn’t see the need for anything other than the cheapest funeral possible, and she was probaly right. But I couldn’t give my dad the cheapest funeral as our last act for him. Just couldn’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/43 "2014-06-05T15:51:13Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I was thinking about the high cost of funerals - embalming, elaborate caskets, elaborate services, etc… and I’m thinking why? I’d rather my family use the money for things they need rather than go thru all that when I’m gone. > > I’ve told them I want to be buried in a simple pine box with no elaborate funeral which means a basic service only with no viewing. > > What do you all think? Go the economy route on this. But in the long run, you’re dead and you can’t stop your family from spending big buckets of money on your carcass, even though you said please don’t while you were still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/44 "2014-06-07T19:42:44Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > 1. Even if you don’t care what happens ('cause you’ll be dead), if you have people who care about you, let them know what you “want” - so they aren’t stuck during an emotional time trying to guess whether you liked Amazing Grace or hated it and ending up in an argument over it (when, yeah, you don’t care, but they think you might have and aren’t exactly emotionally rational). If you love “On Eagles Wings” I’ll respect your wishes - but unless you specify, I’m leaving it out. HA! That reminds me of my father. He hates “Amazing Grace” so much he told us that if we played it at his funeral, he’d rise up out the casket and blow the roof off of the church. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/45 "2014-06-09T21:33:40Z")
I recently ran across a company way will build a nice looking but not terribly expensive wood coffin, and ship it to you unassembled, to be used when needed. If you want to, I think you can order it unfinished, and finish your own coffin, as well as assemble it. My father probably only has a couple of years left, if that, and I’m trying to figure out how to suggest this to her, as both a beautiful and less pricy option. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/46 "2014-06-15T20:01:43Z")
Well, it’s Father’s Day. Suggest it as a project kit. ---
**Author:** ![Kazo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@Kazo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kazo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/47 "2014-06-16T17:21:19Z")
I’ve decided that I want the least costly disposal possible for my body, and the most beneficial for those that survive me. That is to say, I either want my body donated to a body farm and/or science use, or cremation and having ashes spread somewhere cool. NO FUNERAL. Have a party in a park or at home in my honor and cook some good food. I like fajitas, so maybe that. (or not; I’m dead, what do I care?) edit: I’m 28 so still fairly young, but it has been a sometimes difficult trip down a mental pathway to get to where I am now. When I was as old as 18, I couldn’t imagine having my body in any state other than totally complete and as preserved as possible. Over time my feelings relaxed enough to realize that, after I’m dead, it doesn’t really matter what happens to my body. So I might as well make it as cost effective and easy for those that survive me. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015/48 "2014-06-16T17:54:56Z")
I kind of like this idea. > **[Eternal Reefs » Living legacies that memorialize our loved ones](https://www.eternalreefs.com/)** > > Eternal Reefs combines a cremation urn, ash scattering, & green burial at sea into an environmental memorial while creating new marine habitats for sea life [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-expensive-funerals-worth-it/690015.md?page=2)