The shocking cost of a funeral

Having said goodbye to my mum last month, I really feel the need to share the cost of the funeral!  This is not to brag regarding the money my mum had saved or to come across morbid, but more to make others aware of a cost that some of us will not have prior experience with (thank goodness!).

But, the cost of a burial came to a huge shock to both myself and my sister and thank goodness my mum had savings for this service!!  My mum's wishes were to be buried and its this service I will be writing about.  The cost of a cremation is far less and fortunately, I have no experience the arrangements for one of those.

* To buy a new plot at our local cemetery £2,000
* To hire the services of our local funeral directors cost us £1,900
* To purchase a headstone, these range from £1,000 - £1,500
* Flowers, which were beautiful and mum would have been proud £140
* Wake (which we had in the function room of the pub) £5.50 per head
* Chapel Service £300
* We had a family member create the order of service
* I also think we had to pay for the Reverand but I can't remember, so I'll update this post once I get the bill from my sister.

This cost has been a massive eye opener to us, and as a result of this it made me stop and think about my own arrangements not in a morbid way, but purely from a financial situation!  I don't know what/if any savings I may have and I don't want my family on a debt plan when I'm gone, and its because of this that I now find myself planning on going back to the funeral directors to discuss my own plans!

As I mentioned above, this post is not meant to be morbid in any way and I apologise if it comes across that way.  It is merely a fact sheet, just to put the seed out there to you that the cost of a funeral - is up there with the cost of a wedding!

Hope we did you proud mum.

Always in our hearts.