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TokenBoomer@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 599 points –
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I've told my family more than once to arrange my funeral the cheapest way possible. If they had the option to dump me in the ocean, they have my blessing. Don't spend money on me, I'm DEAD.

Donate your used meat parts to your local medical school. It's fun, educational, and a great way to stay in shape!

It's fun

I loved it when I dismembered a human /s

It was really educational when I got to do it. Studying Netter's and Gray's (or in my case Finn Boysen Møller) can only get you so far. If you want to really understand anatomy, and the insane amount of variation that occurs, then dissection is a pretty good way forward.

You joke, but it really is an incredibly cool experience. I am not a doctor, but I was privileged to have a hands on anatomy class in school where we had human cadavers. Things are so different in person than they are in textbooks. And getting to actual see, touch, and feel how the human body works and how it goes wrong is just amazing. I was so wowed by it that it's what led me to my career today (working in a hospital lab with human organs).

I'm gonna eat a bunch of weird shit like rocks and styrofoam before I die, and confuse the shit out of whatever student gets to dissect my stomach

Funerals are for the living.

Don't tell your family what to do at your funeral, because you'll be dead. It's not for you, it's for the people left behind. So let them do what they feel is right.

Besides, how could ever know or care? You're DEAD.

It seemed apparent, to me at least, that the person you replied to had the intention of telling their loved ones not to spend on OP's account. Not that they're forbidding the family from any course of action.

I guess if you take it super literally, okay, whatever. But the smallest amount of thought seems to make this obvious.

^- this right here is the right answer.

I have a song I'd like to be played for the 5 people who'll attend, but that's more about the message it convey - if I don't get to use my death to influence people, then I guess I don't really have a choice. I have a preference with regard to burial vs cremation, but that's it. For the rest, you figure it out. Don't want to maintain a burial plot? Fine, don't want a tomb stone? Fine. You have to deal with it, so you get to decide.

Hell I told mine to hit up those shady companies on This Week Tonight. You can get rid of my body and get a few hundred dollars? Win win I don't care.

I mean, what this ad should really read is "save your family thousands". If you can afford it and have the resources, preplan your whole burial plan so your family can just grieve instead of dealing with all the admin of it.

You can go ahead and prepay for the service, even if it's just cremation and stuffing your bone dust in a cardboard box.

That way your family doesn't have to both grieve and figure out arrangements.

Ziplock bag and a catapult.

'Goes to rent catapult'

Fuuuuuuuuuuuu

Dump my body unceremoniously on the lawn of a billionaire.

I just want them to play "it's raining men" as they scatter my ashes. Because, well...

What about “Freedom,” by George Michael?

Great song. I can't think of a worse time to play it's raining men than when it's literally raining men, tho

No joke y'all, plan shit like this now, not tomorrow, not next year. And I don't care your age or health. If you die tonight, the funeral industry vultures will swoop on your grieving people and fuck them over.

Working on end-of-life stuff with my new wife (both of us 52), and she doesn't like it, but it's getting done. If I eat it tomorrow, she'll be buying a casket, plot, headstone, whatever the hell she's told to buy.

Get a will drawn up, get a Living Will signed and notarized. Hell, just look up "end of life documents" and get to work if you love the people you might be leaving.

And if you're married, FFS get life insurance, preferably whole life. It's hilariously cheap if you're young, and I mean stupid cheap, like $10-20/mo. cheap for fat stacks. Study on it a bit, don't get jerked around! Had a good friend over the other night who sells and explained much.

Tried to get us on a plan that immediately pays out funeral expenses. Sounds great! Nah, we'll self-insure that small bit. Instead we'll setup a joint account and auto-pay $100-$200 a month until we're feeling good about it. $10-20K? Can't afford that? Who cares?! Pay $25/mo., whatever, it'll stack if you're young.

tl;dr: The funeral business gets away with this shit because we don't plan, and that's on us. And if you want a casket? Sure, take a plan as pictured.

Plan WAY ahead and donate your body to science. Family isn't stuck with a bill to the vultures. Cremation even costs way too much to pay people that prey on grieving family for something that is inevitable. And science benefits from your donation. Ultimate win.

"science" doesn't take every body, and I've outlived two of the three doctors who want to experiment on my corpse (much to their chagrin).

THAT is a fine idea! Totally forgot!

And let's not forget to check that organ donor box. See how it works in your country.

Also, tell the guy that digs the hole how big the coffin is including handles.

Because I went to a funeral last year where it didn't fit.

Good God what happened then?

We all went back inside for the food and mingling part, while they adjusted the metal bit at the top.

Eventually they came back and said it'd take longer than that as the sides of the hole would have to be altered so most of us left.

I swear we were there for about four hours in total. I don't know if they're all like that over there, but most UK funerals are like "welcome, hymn, eulogy, hymn, funny story, oven, drinks, home". I find open caskets weird as well.

Just buy them from costco. $1149 https://www.costco.com/funeral-caskets.html

Why are coffins so expensive? I'm going to start telling people to throw me into trash when I'm dead like Frank Reynolds.

I have done some woodworking, and I'd have a difficult time providing a decent casket for $1149. These are obviously sourced from low labor cost areas.

What if it's just a human-shaped crate, just 6 rough, untreated planes of wood nailed together? That couldn't be that expensive, right?

Have you checked lumber prices recently?

I haven't. But I can't imagine a human shaped shipping crate to cost close to 1000 $.

I meant something that looked nice. The hardware, surface conditioning, and paint job is not a trivial expense, after the lumber is bought, cut, and assembled.

A cheap cheap version could be made out of furnace plenum duct metal. Or cardboard. Actually I'd prefer to be rolled up in a piece of old carpet torn out during remodeling.

cardboard caskets definately do exist, I've seen them mentioned by morticians, and advertised, and they don't neccecarily look or work badly. then there are woven willow basket type caskets.

And then, this one is perhaps most similar to you the option you cite as a preference, there's the classic shroud. basically some plain woven fabric that the bidy is wrapped in. the lightest, lest resource intensive, and likely lest expensive body covering for a funeral, that i can think of. shrouds seem popular in green and natural butials, as well as a number of religious burials, and they have a history of sucessfully us that goes back some way it seems.

It's not neccecarily quite the same as used carpet, but you could probably arrange for a plain second hand sheet, or an old curtain perhaps, for your funeral if you wanted. Just make sure its biodegradable and large enough to cover a body, and you should be good (actually if you can find old carpet that meets those conditions, they might just accept that too, probably wnat to check with the burial grind staff ahead of time though).

In quite a similar spirit, perhaps, anyway. Then, with a coevring picked out, you'll probably wnat a local green or natural burial ground, as the likeliest place for a burial place that's up for that style of burial and coffin alternative.

Nah. I really want to make my death someone else's problem.

Also, people aren’t going to care about proper disposal when the apocalypse kicks in.

someone else's problem

Me, looking at the semi approaching from the opposing direction of the highway:

Coffins are a huge waste of money and space. Cremation's the way to go.

Just throw me in the garbage, man.

Hey, that's taken! Find your own garbage death pit, damn freeloader.

To be fair cremation probably can cost the same or more depending on the additional cost. It's stupid why death cost so much financially. Families already facing the emotional cost of losing their love ones.

It's always been cheaper in my experience.

How many people did you cremate? And at what point does it become cost effective to invest in a small kitchen cremator?

If you are an aspiring serial killer planning on serial killing then I'd say at victim #3 you should really invest in a small kitchen cremator to ignite your serial killing career

At a certain point in life you'll usually have 6 family members who have died, and if you live even longer you'll start having friends die.

Fuck it. Cryo.

That's right, cryo is both cheap, viable, and resource light! Just smack some solar panels on that badboy and you won't even have to think about rising electricity prices.

Fuck, I wish I was cryofrozen right now.

in general, agreed on the point about coffins, and using land just for butial into perpetuity is not a great tradition.

If and where it's just about the use of a box, and/or about the using of land space solely for burial, then one other option they can adress bith of these is 'green conservation butkal'.

The land is used for nature and ecosystem restoration and conservation at the same time, and there is no box/coffin required at all. They can also sometimes be less expensive than conventional burial (with the box and the embalming and so on) or even conventional cremation. Some more about the subject at:

https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/green-burial/

1 more...

When I die fire me out of a freakin cannon into the sun.

What if I don’t want to be a delivery boy?

signed sealed delivered. back door delivery possible and he always handles with care.

If it were up to me ... I'd prefer you just wrap my body in a plastic bag and throw it in the trash

The world disregards human life so easily in so many parts of the world ... why should anyone have any respect for my dead body.

The unfortunate answer to your question is very likely only because there is money to be made....

I don't know about that one, bit I know of a somewhat similar option. Yiu can. in so. e states, havarranhe to Hove your body wrapped in a... fabric shroud, amd laid into a .. vat filled with organic material, usually woodchils and the like(wood hips are sometimes consodered a waste or a garbage product) , then after after a few weeks you ahve compost or soil basically, that can be used for land conseravtion ect.

I might add, to yiur point, that representatives of the Catholic church have repeatedly opposed this posted etah option from becoming avakabke, on the ground that get this they considerit to be undignified', (granted, they're just about the only ones who take thatbosition, one they know moanybof the detail and context, but it's a substantial and influential organisation), and then random passerby who doesn't know anything other about the process than a sensational news headline on might well condiser it undignified too, in the moment anyway.

And of course, you could consider it to be as if you had arranged for your foture corpse to be turned into literal dirt, dirt, and then what could be more gloriously u dignified than that.

... more on that subject at: https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/green-death-technology/#natural-organic-reduction and at www.recompose.life (I shiuld warn, neigher of these resources make the process sound or look larocularky undignified, but then these things are a matter of perspective after all, in some ways)

Had to plan an unexpected funeral. They were going to be cremated but we wanted to have a service first. They have caskets, that are meant to be burnt, for the low price of $6,000. This was over 10 years ago too. I'm sure it's much more now.

Only 6k? That's a steal! As in "they are blatantly stealing money from you"

Jeez, a refrigerator-sized cardboard box would be free.

you know, I was thinkingaabout purpose made carborad caskets, and they do exit, but reusing a fridge box seems like an even more fun idea if thats something that appeal to loving peron planning thir future funeral a More eco friendly, and more evonomical as yiu metión. 📦

also a shout out to the idea of shorids, in that cade case a clean old beafheet of the right size and material, will probanly work just as well as any shroud, for a burial. (For some some burial grounds, no box needed, just a shroud is perfectly fine. basically a fabric sheet wrapping. low cost it potentially free)

We just rented the casket for my father's funeral. Then he was shipped to the crematorium.

I don‘t want to be put in casket when I die and have people mourning. Two things should be thrown when I die: a big ass party and whatever is left of me into the trash.

When I die, I don't give a shit what happens to my body, do whatever causes people and the planet the least ammount of crap.

I weigh alot, so use a cart to wheel me around so you don't injure your backs trying to carry me.

If cremation is the least bad, do that, if freeze drying is less bad than that, do that.

If you can use my corpse for science or education, go ahead.

Just, please wait untill I am dead.

okay, I'm sure Reddit Lemmy comments serve as a legal last will and testament & post-mortem directives. So we will remember what you told us.

I will trust that you act a notary public on the matter.

K. I mean there are like three other seriously important things for my bare minimal survival that I've been procrastinating for weeks, but sure I'll get right on that.

"When I die, I don’t give a shit what happens to my body, do whatever causes people and the planet the least ammount of crap. "

on that note, some links that may be useful or relevant:

https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/green-death-technology/

as well as: https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/eco-friendly-products

and: https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/green-burial/,

💀 🌱 🌳 🌲 🌳 🌲 🌳 🌲

and,some. things in reulation to planning ahead,, directives, wills and such death related documents (I guess this one may also then be relevant to /u/LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world ) : https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/end-of-life-planning

Catch me going out in that burnt mustard death whip babeee 😎

But seriously, it's natural burial AKA "green burial" for me.

Funeral insurances are pretty common where I'm from. This is not normal in the US?

Not sure about funeral insurance, but we had a whole presentation from a funeral home at work about how we should pre-pay for our funerals

It really is a good idea. My wife's grandma did it in the 80s, so when she died all the family had to do was pick what food they wanted at the wake. Prices only increase, so the earlier you buy the more you save.

Most people have life insurance to pay for their funeral costs, it's just that a subscription plan for a casket very much isn't that.

Honey we've been over this: when I die, my remains are to be embalmed and presented like so.

If you can't afford that or don't want to bother, just throw me in the trash 🙂