Rent-A-Coffin. Economically-Overloaded Families Resort to a New Solution

In some Western countries some families follow a recent trend. More and more families, primarily due to a bad financial situation, instead of buying coffins for their ceased loved ones, they decide to rent one to save money.

The prices have been soaring globally recently. If you also bear in mind the fact that getting a job in the post-pandemic situation is a hell of a challenge, it will come as no surprise that the funeral costs could be a very heavy burden for some families. That is why some funeral homes, especially in Great Britain and USA, offer a new option - coffins to rent.

Renting a coffin drastically reduces the costs of a funeral as coffins are the most expensive 'element'. For example, as far as Great Britain is concerned, the cheapest coffin costs about 500 pounds. As many families would never dare to bury their dear one in 'something like that', they go for 'standard models' costing on average 700 pounds. It wasn't that long ago when most families would go for luxurious models costing 2,500 pounds. To give you some idea what kind of saving we are talking about, renting a coffin costs only 200 pounds.

How do you actually rent a coffin? The ceased person is put in a very cheap wooden coffin or even a cardboard one, which is put inside more splendid one. So he or she lies in something nice and nobody can figure out that in fact they rest in a box. Only after the ceremony the dead person is taken out and either cremated in the cardboard one or put into a cheap coffin and buried in the ground. All in all, the family are not ashamed of saving on the funeral. Still, I guess they are not happy about having to go for such an option.