Frugal funeral

From 18 to 93 is a lot of living. Funeral is this coming Thursday. Brother and I are glad Daddy made several choices.

First ,,, he had a will , living will, power of attorney and medical power of attorney and kept it updated. HE had already put Brother's name on all accounts. The life ins and IRAs were already done for who they went to.

Second he prepaid and PLANNED his funeral in 1996... some where along the line he had lost the obit he had wrote and hadn't given the funeral home a copy to put in his file... They had a lot of the info just needed updated. The young man was wonderful to work with as he wrote the obit as if it was his own dad using the info we gave him to fill in. It was part of their services that Daddy had paid for. Daddy had already paid for the flowers and chose what he wanted. Since it's covid and Brother and I both are leary of a open service, we decided private family viewing with a graveside service that we will officiate , nothing Daddy hated more than a preacher preaching over a casket instead of focusing on the deceased and the families . With what he chose and paid for and how we adjusted it for the times there was a savings of over $15,000... yeah his solid oak casket is now $8000 and he paid $2000.

Third his grave is paid for along with his marker except for engraving the death date as my step mother and two of the three stepbrothers are already buried.  We do have to pay for opening and closing the grave. The cemetery would not do prepaid at that time. 

Since we sold the house last year to pay for his medical that wasn't covered under his 2 insurances... there is no property to deal with... I do still have some of his stuff from the house but it's now pretty much down to what needs donated or into a dumpster. I cut the cord off the non steaming iron he still had and gave it to M... works great on her wood burning cook stove and she was in need of an iron anyways.

I will add that lawyer and the Funeral home told us what Daddy saved by doing it all ahead ... beside us grieving and not thinking clear and not having to make choices.... close to $15,000 was saved.... that is a LOT of money and he definitely didn't have that left in any accounts when he died so it would have been OUT OF OUR POCKETS.