Both of my parents opted for direct cremation. No viewing, no casket, no embalming, no funeral home. Essentially, they collect the body, clean it, and cremate it in something barely sturdier than a cardboard box. I'm certain it cost less than $1000 for each of them.
Neither wanted a big deal funeral home ordeal with the expense and exhaustion the family endures. We had a heartfelt ceremony underneath an oak tree and buried their ashes in the family plot in a hole we dug ourselves with a posthole digger.
I've got to tell you... it's what I want when my day comes.
I've also recently read of something called "green" funerals, in which the body is wrapped in a burlap bag and buried without embalming or anything like that.
In my state, Connecticut, there is a mandatory 48 hour waiting period after death before a body can be cremated. Learned that when my father passed in 2007.
Most of his ashes were buried with my mother, but we had a small portion put in a small brass urn that me, Mr Kitty , and my four sons took to our place in Vermont and buried with a monument that the boys made out of stones on the property. It meant a great deal to all of us as my father was the father figure to the 3 oldest boys (I made a poor choice of first husband and my father helped raised the 3 oldest)and he always loved Vermont. We did this one what would have been my father’s 100th birthday (not that long after he passed).
We gave “Grandpa” a nice funeral when he passed, but this second, private ceremony had a lot more meaning for us.