2016-05-04 “Simple Cremations”

When it comes to the cost of a funeral, there are a lot of variables that are considered. Here is some information for you…

  • Every Funeral Home has a pricelist and we are required to give you one if you request it…no questions asked.
  • The cost of funerals largely depends on the services and supplies that you choose. Every Funeral Home (if they have the facilities) can offer you services from a traditional service at the Funeral Home to something much simpler.
  • If you don’t use a Funeral Home for visitation or a Funeral Service then you save the cost that would normally be charged for both. If you choose to have a Funeral Service in a Church or other venue, you will save the Funeral Home costs, but there may be a charge from the alternate location. In essence you may have to rent the facilities of a church or a hall.
  • Every Funeral Home could or should offer a low cost cremation service. I support direct cremation when that is the wish of the family. The only thing I stress to folks is that if they need the chance to say goodbye before the cremation, then it should happen for them. We allow that to happen here at the Funeral Home and there is no charge for that.
  • Some Funeral Homes have different ways of offering services through their pricelist. All charges for the services you can purchase are itemized. A Funeral Home then can offer packages and say (and these are all random numbers) “our charge for a traditional service is $5000 but if you take all of those services we will give you a discount and only charge you $4000”. However, if you deviate from those services then you go back to the original charge. So in essence, if you take the traditional $5000 service you will get the reduced charge of $4000 but if you decide that you don’t want a hearse or another service, then you have to go back to the $5000 charge and take off the $300 for the hearse and then pay $4700 instead of the $4000 if you took everything. At the Blenheim Community Funeral Home we don’t operate that way. Our service charges are not inflated to offer a discount. If you don’t want a service, it is simply deducted without a penalty.

Until next week,

Marc