Need more advice about paying for funeral expenses. My mom passed away yesterday. She had pre-paid most of her burial costs, but between the funeral home handling her cremation and the cost of her marker/granite slab, the "overage" was $6,000. The marker/slab alone was $4200 and I had to get it on payments, $300+ a month, more than my car payment. It's all on us. She was in a nursing home on Medicaid. She has no assets, insurance or anything else. We are on Social Security and have expenses of our own that we can barely afford. We live in Ohio. Is there any help available out there?
People who set aside enough money for their own funerals, and/or wealthy people who can well afford it can have ceremonies and monuments as elaborate as they want. The rest of us should be realistic about what they can afford.
My condolences on your mother's death. I am so sorry you are in this stressful financial situation as well.
I hope you can reconsider your buying decisions. Would your mother really want you to take on a $300/month commitment to pay for her marker?
Any chance your Mom's aches could be placed in a small drawer vault at the cemetery? If there is a burial plot, ask if it could be converted to a small drawer vault just for ashes. That way on the door of the vault a small plaque would be just as nice as a large headstone.
What the cemetery will do is buy back the burial plot, and then with that money you purchase a small drawer vault. With the money left over, then the cemetery can recommend a place that does the plaques.
How on earth could your "overage" be $6,000? I think the solution is to cut back to what can be purchased with the money your mother set aside.
If you can an urn with her ashes and a memorial service is a great idea. It's a touching way to honor and remember you mom. You can have the memorial whenever you and your family are up to it. You should be able to do all of this for $2000. See if it's not to late to make a change. It should not be an issue at all for a very good funeral home/
The sign-in register is a nice book but expensive. Maybe one could be found to be used less costly. When my Dad passed, the funeral home suggested I use the same book my Mom had when she passed. There were extra blank pages.