burial

Death isn't cheap: According to recent studies, the average cost of a traditional funeral is almost $8,000. So in America, internment usually comes down to a choice between an expensive burial and a less costly cremation. But there are other options that you might not have considered.

The howling-wolf T-shirt phenomenon it is not. Walmart Stores (WMT) has closed the lid on customer reviews of its caskets. As DailyFinance reported this week, the retailer is selling 15 caskets, and more than 130 urns and cremains containers, through its website. As debatable as that business...

There's an old saying about death being a recession-proof business. After all, come hell or high water (or maybe because of them), somebody's going to die. But the nation's cemeteries are facing a tough row to hoe as recession-weary consumers pare down burial plans and escalating real-estate prices...

As if playing host annually to Devil's Night each October weren't enough, Detroit has another ghoulish problem on its hands as bodies pile up in the county morgue. With so many families out of work and the city's coffers strapped, no one can afford to bury the 67 bodies that have accumulated at the...

While feelings are mixed on whether or not the U.S. is recovering or still at risk are mixed, at least we can be reassured by the reliability of death and taxes. The latter, of course, is being made more certain by IRS efforts to catch tax-dodgers, while the former needs no help. Unfortunately, the...

The recession is hitting everyone hard -- even the dead.Or at least the surviving relatives of the deceased.Several large counties are having unprecedented increases in the number of unclaimed bodies, partly because more people can't afford to bury or cremate their loved ones, according to a Time...

I swear this isn't the punchline to a joke. "Where do Pringles tube inventors go when they die??" "Their ashes are buried in a potato chip can!" When 89-year-old retired chemist Dr. Fredric J. Baur gathered his family members to discuss his eventual passing on into the great beyond, he told them he...

After I wrote yesterday's post on alternative choices for burial vessels, it occurred to me that I wasn't really considering all the other options that are out there. For most people, funeral planning comes down to a choice between cremation and burial; burial is the more traditional choice, while...