Come in under the average cost of a funeral, rent the casket
Renting a Casket can help you come in under the average cost of A Funeral. This can be effective in achieving a low cost funeral. After the casket rental and visitation there is usually a cremation. A little known scenario that is often used is a closed casket visitation with a n urn inside! the public does not have to know! Usually the family is informed.
From www.wctv.tv
“Funerals can deal a huge blow to a family’s finances and a few Valdosta funeral directors say there are some people who are cutting funeral costs by renting caskets.
Local funeral directors say families who decide to rent a casket and cremate a loved one rather than buy a casket and bury them can save a few thousand dollars on funeral costs.
For each individual service, cardboard inserts are placed inside the casket.
Only the casket’s outer shell is reused.
Once the service is over, the inserts are removed and taken to the crematorium along with the body.”
One way to come in under the average cost of a funeral is to simply grave rob yourself. One way you cut back in hard times is to get rid of what you eventually don’t need. You simply let your grave go. You put it up for sale. So in the Las Vegas area online listings are filled with grave sites for sale.
This is one way to lower your funeral costs and expenses. I have declared the average cost of the funeral to be $8,500 per year in 2009 (NOT INCLUDING THE CEMETERY).The fastest way to save on the average cost of funeral is to have a cremation. When you choose to be cremated you do not necessarily need a burial site. So in hard it places during this recession grave plots are going up for sale.
“This real estate calls for careful advertising: “Prestigious and matured garden,” “near water feature and tree,” “includes vault and headstone.”
In Clark County and across the country, a tough economy is prompting people to sell burial plots intended for later use or inherited from family. The plots have been stacking up in Internet classifieds (those quotes were taken from Las Vegas Craigslist postings) and on Web sites where online brokers keep databases of plots for sale by owner, a multiple listing service for cemeteries.”
Baron Chu, owner of California burial resale site Plot Brokers, says listings have grown at least tenfold in the past year. And Ken Brant, sales director for national Web site Grave Solutions (which currently has 117 listings in Nevada, mostly multiple plots), says resales have increased as the economy sinks. People are going online to get around mortuary prices, just like any shopper who shudders at retail prices.
Either way, Brant says, “it’s about the worst product in the world to sell.”
Funeral news.6.15.09 The 2nd Largest Funeral Corporation in the world has been reporting a decline in revenue for quite
Funeral Homes are looking for New Income Sources,Baby Showers.
some time now. It is enough to say that the numbers are bad. But going so far as to suggest baby showers in funeral facilities?
Sounds extreme. Yet the numbers do not lie. The latest numbers for Stewart Enterprises, Inc point to the fact that it is becoming easier and easier to come in under the average cost of a funeral.
“Revenue fell 8 percent to $126.6 million from $136.8 million last year. Funeral revenue fell 7 percent to $71.2 million, while cemetery revenue fell 8 percent to $55.4 million.”
While the economy continues to struggle, Stewart is looking into alternative uses of their facilities. The St. Bernard Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home has held community meetings and baby showers in its post-Katrina renovated reception room.
FUNERAL FACILITIES HAVING BABY SHOWERS. This happening at the second largest funeral corporation in the world!
Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Folks are now turning to online obituaries, online memorials and soon virtual cemeteries.
Online memorials are growing on the internet very quickly. In fact one of the best tips I can give to come in under the average cost of a funeral is to combine a small newspaper obituary with a an online memorial. This will enable you to come in under the average cost of a funeral which is $8,500+dollars per year.
There is a difference between the online obituary, the online memorial, and the new and soon to grow on the web virtual cemetery.
Thinking funeral directors add on line obituaries at their sites. They are very common now, should be inexpensive, and very effective. Online memorials are the next step. Folks can leave a memorial message for a friend or loved one. These are on the web and some are useful. What is coming next is the virtual cemetery. Eventually burials will take place on the Internet.
Facebook is a powerful free memorial tool with contacts already there. Every family should consider this as a memorial option when a loved one dies.
Facebook has become a “CENTER FOR NEWS” that a person has died. The home page can provide information about the funeral. Some folks have even taken the picture of the Rest in Peace book I authored at “My Home Page” as a memorial for my death!
Facebook is a great place for online memorials
Close Relatives and friends can ask Facebook to place the Loved Ones page into a “Online Memorial state” that limits use to specific friends and family. To set this up , family members must send a newspaper obituary clipping of the person’s death, or a copy of a death certificate.
At this point in time it is best to combine online memorials with small less expensive newspaper obituaries.
Tributes.com has some big Wall Street Journal Money behind them
“The Charlestown, Mass.-based online obituary site Tributes.com already has hundreds of thousands of profile pages, based on death information from the Social Security Administration. Soon, executives with the site expect to offer pre-death services, so people can plan their own online profiles to run after their funeral.–CBSNews.com
Tributes.com was founded by the creator of monster.com and eons.com. They have some big money from the Wall Street Journal behind them.
Tributes.com does have afree memorial available for 300 words. After that you must pay a monthly fee.
There is also an exceptionally well done slide show of celebrity deaths at this site. They also have a Q and A with a grief and loss expert.
Tributes.com started off with big name investors, will be an extensive funeral site eventually and we should expect more from them in the future.
Eternal Spaces is the first virtual cemeter on the web-available through funeral homes.
Los Angeles-based EternalSpace.com launched its Web site in March, offering a variety of virtual scenic locations online for a person’s final resting place: A “Zen Garden,” a “Lake View,” a “Tropical Valley” and other options.
Sold directly through funeral homes, the service allows a person or relatives to establish a pastoral grave site and add digital amenities such as the image of a park bench or mausoleum-CBSNews.com
The company’s immersible EternalSpace memorials are changing the way society pays tribute to loved ones by providing a personalized online destination where lives are celebrated, honored, and remembered.”-connectingdirectors.com
An online final destination means online graveyard.
Legacy.com allows you to place an obituary in a newspaper and on the internet. This is the best way to go to ensure everyone finds out about the death of a loved one. Newspapers across the country use this service.
Michelle Costley of Tampa felt compelled to do something online when her father Thomas Michael Costley died in January. After a quick Google search for “Online Memorial,” she found Legacy.com and built a profile page with her father’s picture, a place to donate to the National Kidney Foundation, a photo gallery and a memory book.-The Daily Record
Summary Facebook allows you to have a memorial for 1 month after your gone. Tributes.com stared by the monster.com founder is pricey, eternalspaces.com new costs the consumer $200.00. It is a virtual cemeteryand memorial site, There wil be free ones in the future.
A Stained Glass Scoreboard at Beyond the Vines Cemetery is modeled after the Wrigley Field Scoreboard
More details have emerged on the special Cubs cemetery spot. At the grand opening there was no famous ballplayers just a replica of the 400 center field wall and a stained glass scoreboard modeled after the Historic hand operated Wrigley Field Scoreboard.
People were not walking away with Cubs memorabilia or Ernie Banks autographs- but simply donuts.
The advantage for the “dying cub fan” is that they will be able to Rest in Peace for up to another 100 years waiting on a WORLD SERIES WIN.
They will also be able to come in under the average cost of a traditional funeral in 2009(8,500.00+ USD). The eternal Cub Fan will have have to pay $1295.00 plus the cost of cremation for an “Eternal Sky Box”
The Stain Glass Scoreboard is not connected to the Cubs organization or MLB.
The stained glass scoreboard was revealed at the grand opening of Beyond the Vines, April 22nd 2009. The Chicago Cubs game starting time of 1:20pm was the time of the ceremony.
Stain Glass Scoreboard pic from the Medill School at North Western University by Devin Kidner
Stain Glass Scoreboard
The 14 x16 Foot center Field Wall is modeled after the 400 Center Field Wall at Wrigley Field
Center Field Wall Replica with Stained Glass Scoreboard. Photo by Wayne Drehs for ESPN Chicago.com
The owner of the Chicago North Side Columbarium located on the North side of the city cannot wait to see the Vines Grow so it looks more like the center field wall at Wrigley Field.
Center Field 400 at Wrigley Field
The owner of Beyond the Vines expects to have a Wall Replica from Wrigley Field right field pictured here.
Right Field Wrigley Field
The owner of Beyond the Vines says he is an Eternal Cub Fan. So he will not do a White Sox Wall although some Cub fans buried there may remember this picture from 2005.
2005 picture Wrigley Field Sign after White Sox World Series Win.
Funeral Industry|Cub Fan Cemetery Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Beyond the vines is located at Bohemian National Cemetery on the North Side of Chicago.
Source: MLB.com and your funeral guy’s previous posts on this subject
Right field Pic From Flickr under creative commons license from wallyg’s photostream
2005 Wrigley Field Sign Pick from Flickr under the Creative Commons License from sscornelius’ photostream
Wrigley Field Center Field Photo from Flickr under the Creative Commons licensejimcchou’s photostream
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