Spend less at the funeral home by buying some things yourself
Federal law lets you buy a casket or urn from anyone and requires the funeral home to use it, with no handling fee (16 CFR 453.4(b)). Memorial goods and paperwork are the same story. The practical steps: call the funeral home, ask where to ship and how receiving works, confirm delivery timing against the service date, and keep the receipts.
The links on this page exist to shorten your week. Every item here can be bought somewhere else, and nothing on this list requires a specialty store. But grief week is a hundred small errands, and each one you can finish right now, in this sitting, is one that stops following you around. So this page tries to be the one stop: what you need, why you need it, roughly what it costs, and a place to buy it, so that when you close this tab the shopping is done.
Referral disclosure: some links on this page, including the Amazon links, are referral links that pay this site a commission. The fee never changes the price you pay, and the full Amazon Associates statement is at the bottom of this page.
Caskets and urns
When is the casket actually needed?
Later than the arrangement room makes it feel. From the moment a funeral home takes someone into its care, they are looked after, and that care does not depend on a casket being chosen. Refrigeration is a standard part of it. The casket is only needed shortly before the first time it is used: the visitation if there is one, otherwise the service itself.
So if taking a day or two to order online feels like holding things up, it is not. Confirm the delivery date against the service date when you order, and the schedule takes care of itself.
Three places sell caskets and urns and ship to the funeral home you choose. The price difference versus a selection room is usually real. Pick the channel that fits the week you are having.
A direct-to-consumer casket company built around the Funeral Rule. Caskets from several hundred dollars to about two thousand, urns as well, free shipping to the funeral home, and their team coordinates the delivery date with the home for you.
Caskets roughly $700 to $2,000; funeral home showrooms often run $2,500 and up
Yes, Costco. It has sold caskets and urns online for years, around $1,350 for most casket models, shipped to the funeral home of your choice. The same federal rule applies: the home must accept it.
Most caskets around $1,350; urns much less
If a casket-company website feels like a lot right now, or you do not have a Costco login, Amazon sells caskets and urns too, in the same account you already have, with the checkout you already know. Enter the funeral home's address as the shipping address and confirm the delivery date against the service.
Caskets commonly $900 to $2,000; urns from about $30
Sympathy flowers
Standing sprays and arrangements can come from outside the funeral home package. Put the funeral home name and service date in the gift message.
Sympathy sprays, wreaths, and arrangements from an FTD network florist, shipped to the funeral home. Put the home name and service date in the gift message. Useful when you need flowers ordered in a few minutes from a phone.
Typical sympathy arrangements often $50 to $150 before delivery
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Same-day and next-day options through Amazon Grocery and third-party florists, in the account you already have. Confirm the delivery window against the service date; funeral homes sometimes refuse deliveries on the day of the service itself.
Wide range; check the delivery date before checkout
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Checklists for everything else
Smaller goods, grouped by situation. Amazon links finish the list in one cart; Titan Casket sells urns and keepsakes direct as well.
Service day kit
The short list families buy for a visitation or service: guest book, photo frames, candles, and flowers. One pass, done.
- Funeral guest book
Hardcover guest books for the visitation or service.
- Memorial photo frames and displays
Frames and table displays for photos at the visitation.
- Memorial candles
Unity and memorial candle sets for services at home or church.
- Sympathy flowers
Standing sprays, wreaths, and arrangements. Ship to the funeral home or the family.
Cremation kit
For a cremation plan: a permanent urn or a temporary container while you decide, keepsakes if the ashes will be shared, and a scattering tube if that is the plan.
- Adult cremation urn
Full-size urns, about 200 cubic inches. Metal, wood, ceramic.
Often under a few hundred online
- Temporary cremation container
Simple temporary urns and boxes used until a permanent urn is chosen.
- Keepsake urns (small)
Small shareable urns for dividing ashes among family.
- Scattering tube
Tubes designed for scattering ashes outdoors where allowed.
Paperwork and after kit
For the weeks after: one organizer for death certificates and claims, and thank-you cards on your own timeline.
- Estate and document organizer
Folders and organizers for death certificates, bills, and benefit claims.
- Thank-you cards
Cards for acknowledgments after the service.
The photo boards and the slideshow
Nearly every visitation has photo boards, an easel print, or a slideshow. Two good paths: arrange the photos yourself (many families remember those hours warmly), or upload and let a printer handle layout. Both end at the same service.
Start by putting every phone's photos in one place. Google Photos is free: it groups by face and date and picks out the sharpest of near-duplicates. That link earns this site nothing.
Poster boards, enlargements, and prints for same-day pickup at most stores. The usual answer when the service is days away.
Same-day pickup at most locations
Posters, enlargements, and prints picked up at a local store within hours. Useful when the nearest Walgreens is out of a size.
Same-day pickup at most locations
One photo on a large canvas for an easel next to the casket or urn, then home with family afterward. Needs shipping lead time.
Shipped; allow several days, expedited options exist
Planning documents, for the family that remains
A death usually sends everyone else home thinking about their own paperwork. None of these is needed for the funeral itself, and none replaces a lawyer when an estate is complicated.
Software from Nolo, the legal publisher, for writing a will, health care directive, and power of attorney at home. Useful when a death has the rest of the family thinking about their own paperwork.
Referral disclosure: this link may pay this site a commission, and the price you pay does not change.
A digital vault for wills, account lists, passwords, and final wishes, organized so the person who handles things later can actually find them.
Referral disclosure: this link may pay this site a commission, and the price you pay does not change.
Template legal documents, including wills, powers of attorney, and the affidavits that come up while settling an estate.
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Bringing your own casket or urn goes smoothest with the letter and the receiving checklist in the Binder. The rights behind all of this are free on the Funeral Rule page.
These retailers are here to save you money: a casket bought direct often costs hundreds to more than a thousand dollars less than the same casket in a funeral home selection room. As an Amazon Associate, Funeral Rulebook earns from qualifying purchases made through Amazon links on this page, and some other links may be referral links that pay this site a small commission. A referral fee never changes the price you pay, and no retailer pays to appear here or to be described a certain way. Funeral homes must accept a casket or urn you buy elsewhere under the federal Funeral Rule (16 CFR 453.4(b)). We are not a funeral home and do not arrange funerals.