How To Save Money on a Burial Casket

Losing a loved one is hard enough on its own, and planning a funeral on top of that grief only adds to the weight. One common shock for many families is just how expensive a burial casket can be, especially with the average traditional burial now running upwards of $7,500. The good news is that you have more options than you might think, and you don’t have to buy a casket directly from the funeral home.

Shop Around, Including Online

When someone is grieving, it’s natural to want to handle everything through the funeral home directly, but that convenience often comes at a cost, particularly for the casket, which is typically the single most expensive line item in a burial. Burials now make up less than half of all funerals, partly because of the rising cost of caskets, vaults, and gravesites compared to cremation.

Funeral homes will usually present a low, medium, and high-priced option from their own selection, but you’re not obligated to choose from it. Comparing prices online for a comparable casket can turn up meaningful savings, since relatively few families take the time to shop around. Many online retailers include shipping in their listed price and will deliver directly to the funeral home of your choosing.

Under the FTC’s Funeral Rule, a funeral home is legally required to accept a casket you purchase elsewhere, and it cannot charge you an extra fee for using one you didn’t buy from them. That protection makes shopping around a genuinely low-risk way to save money.

Other Ways to Save

If buying online feels impersonal or you’d rather see the casket in person first, some large retail chains sell caskets that can be inspected before purchase and shipped directly to your funeral home.

A few other options worth asking about:

• Ask the funeral home if they have any lower-priced models with minor cosmetic imperfections, like small scratches or dents, which are sometimes available at a discount.
• If you’re handy, consider building a casket yourself, either from scratch or using a DIY kit that includes the wood and tools needed to build one.

The Bottom Line

You have more control over casket costs than most families realize. Comparing prices, whether online, through a large retailer, or by asking the funeral home about discounted models, can meaningfully lower one of the biggest expenses in a traditional burial, giving you one less thing to worry about during an already difficult time.