Well, we live out in the boondocks, and my BIL has a large piece of land out behind his house, bordered by BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property… which means, theoretically, that no one can purchase or build on the land adjacent to his property.
So, when his wife died six years ago, the cost of a traditional funeral was way beyond his means–the plot alone would have cost anywhere from $2000 to $5000, making a gravesite the most expensive piece of real estate anyone will ever own in their life (or death, as it were.) Her life insurance would have covered the cost of traditional burial (barely) but would not have paid for having her remains shipped home (she died at an out-of-state hospital) nor have left anything to help pay off her numerous medical expenses. So she was cremated.
So the family, after ascertaining that it was proper and legal (by both the Church and the county government), decided to use that piece of land behind my BIL’s house as the family plot, with the stipulation that if you want to be buried there, you have to agree to be cremated. If you want the plot down in town, you better have sufficient insurance to cover it.
When my FIL died last July, it cost a little under $2000 for cremation WITHOUT a burial plot or an urn. His cremains were returned to us in a modest, but attractive leather case, which kind of suited Dad (he didn’t like a lot of fuss and no one saw the point of paying upwards of $200 for an urn that was going to be put into the ground). At the funeral Mass (offered by another BIL who is a priest), we had a small table set in front of the altar where the casket would have been, covered with a white cloth, with the leather case on it. We set a crucifix on top of the case, along with Dad’s rosary and scapular, a photograph of Dad and his Bible beside it, and a small arrangement of flowers as a backdrop. It was very simple, very reverent, Father blessed the cremains, and when we went to bury Dad, my BIL had lined the grave with a five-gallon bucket (the kind paint comes in) into which Mom set the case with Dad’s cremains, his rosary and scapular. Father blessed the grave, my BIL sealed the bucket, and each member of the family put a shovelful of dirt back into the grave.
A friend of the family who died a couple months later also opted to be cremated and his cremains were buried at the foot of the grave where they had buried one of their sons fifteen years earlier (THAT funeral almost sent them into bankruptcy) with one of their other sons digging the grave, so as to avoid having to pay the funeral home to do it.
With land at a premium, and funeral costs beyond the ordinary means of most people, cremation makes sense. My FIL’s cremains received the same reverent treatment that his body would have.
Of course, when my DH asked if I wanted to be cremated, I had to be a smart aleck and say, “Oh, just surprise me!” No, actually I told him when he got the box with my cremains, just stamp “Return to Sender” on it and send me on my way, just like we did Dad.
Oh my that is expensive!! two years ago buried a loved one’s cremains; with that and the cost of the plot (which is mine as well) in a Catholic cemetery with a gravestone cost under 2000 dollars. I just recently paid for my cremation which was $1400 and that includes opening the grave and a stipend.