Forget the rules - funeral costs.

- Forget the rules, there are meaningful ways to bury spiralling funeral costs | Money | The Guardian
Cutting cremation costs
No family, no friends, no ceremony – a grim farewell for some, but a necessary saving for others.
Direct cremations, where there is no service and the ashes are kept or delivered to loved ones, cost from £1,000.

David Bowie, who died in 2016, famously helped raise awareness of this option when he chose to be secretly cremated without family or friends present after telling loved ones he did not want a funeral service.
His ashes were scattered on the Indonesian island of Bali.

But direct cremations still account for only 4% of all cremations each year.
David Collingwood, director of funerals at Co-op Funeralcare – which handles one in six deaths –says interest is growing.
It charges £1,395 – but he says the decision is often led by practicality more than cost, particularly if family members are overseas.

“The service can be ordered over the phone or online,” he explains.
“And families often have a ceremony with the ashes at a later date.”

Costs are relatively low – less than a third of a cremation with a service.
The body goes straight to the crematorium in a plain coffin, and the process takes place at a time convenient to the facility.
“For some, it is appropriate to have a full service with family carrying the coffin and laying flowers,” Collingwood says.
“For others, that is not the priority. They choose to focus on a memorial service or a ceremony to scatter the ashes.”