You don't have to buy a casket from the funeral home. I understand there's a lot of online places that are much cheaper, even including the shipping. You could use them as a negotiation tool with the funeral home too. They try to cash in on time pressures, grieving and the like.

I have had no experience with Funeral Depot - sorry.

Do you know whether your mother has negative feelings about the idea of cremation, or do you or others in your family whom your Mom might be reluctant to cause to be unhappy?

The urn is much less expensive that a coffin.

Plus the area that is needed for commital in a cemetery is much smaller.

Are you quite certain that your family will need a locastion in a cemetery in your area for quite a number of years, and how many spaces to anticipate needing? The folks at a local cemetery say that each traditional plot will accomodate one coffin and two urns, buried above the coffin.

In our area, we are told that if one decides that one does not need some plots any more, they have only one potential buyer, the cemetery itself, and there is only one price available, that which the current owner had paid in the first place - long ago, before i nflation..

I understand that my old great aunt, who died in 1940, owned a piece of land that she sold to a group to build a cemetery, for whatever amount of cash and she became the holder of 20 plots in the cemetery. On her death, she bequeathed them to her brother, who had been crippled by polio and had lived with her, which was convenient for them both, as she'd never married and was rather poor, I think. On Uncle's death, he bequeathed them to my father, who'd moved a couple of thousand miles away in 1946, and they were registered in Dad's name in 1959 ... at a value of zero dollars, they tell me. Dad told me years ago that if I wanted to give some money to the cemetery, I could have the plots, but I declined.

So now they tell me that I can have whomever that I choose buried there, but I can only dispose of the plots by "selling" them back to the cemetery, at the listed value ... which is Zero Dollars per plot for each of the twenty.

This appears to be a system set in place by the provincial government. My brother says that he sees where a number of people in this province are offering a number of cemetery plots for public sale, at varying prices which it appears that they are choosing.

Almost certainly the rules governing cemetery plots in your jurisdiction will be different, but I'd suggest that you examine the rules governing them rather thoroughly.

I hope that, whatever choice your Mom makes, that you all are pleased with it over a nmber of years.

ole joyful

I know that Costco sells coffins, and I also read that you do not have to be a member to purchase things online from Costco. I have not done that yet, as we just go to the local store here. One can also have a coffin made, my husband has directions in his wood magazines....they use it as a coffee table with storage until needed. If you know of a local woodworker that would like to do that, maybe some person would appreciate the extra money at this time. I had friends who owned a funeral home, and they said the markup in coffins is over 50%. So don't let the funeral home scare you into purchasing one, do some shopping. The funeral home may also come down in price if you show them what you found online, and say you will buy online. They want to make money, and may go down in price. My mom passed away yrs. ago, and the family went though all of this also.
Darlene

Your greatest advantage is time to research, like you're doing now. I was doing the same yesterday and came across this interesting article in a recent Newseek.

Some good insight into the funeral business.

Here is a link that might be useful: article

Funeral homes are required by Federal law to let you use a casket purchased elsewhere, and they can't charge you a fee to do so.

See the link below for the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Consumer Guide.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro19.shtm