Cedar Rapids Area Cremation and celebration of life options

If you don't have any money see what your County can do for you Iowa City Johnson County has a budget of $3k or so per person that they will pay for Cedar Rapids Linn county has around 1k budget link It also good to get a Will setup you can get a free one here

https://www.freewill.com/

Standard market rate best option I have used is

Iowa Cremation for $2379.00 (USD) limited direct cremation I am sure it has gone up since that time as that was a number of years ago. I used theses guys when my mom passed away and they did a good job had no problems.

Website https://www.iowacremation.com/ Phone 1-888-871-3361

Facility Rental

Fee $550 a day I was able to get it for much less but it was a group that I was a member of for years. I think indoor place with A/C is ideal depending on the person but a park celebration and location could be a very low cost way too do it too.

500 full colored printed 8X10 handouts $330 Copy Works

Website https://www.copyworks.com/ Phone (319) 373-5335

Flower

Pierson's Flower Shop $220 for a nice display of roses that is with delivery charge

Webpage https://epiersons.com/ phone (319) 395-0995

Newspaper Gazette

Printing cost $400 for obit in Sunday paper had them do a quick run the 1st weekend and then a full run with Full Color pic the 2nd weekend DO NOT call the Gazette have Iowa Cremation handle it and just pay them later. Gazette Cost is $25 for online placement plus 50 cents per word and photo charges This is a good avenue for people to find out a lot of older people read the Sunday Newspaper still. you can sign up for Free to get Gazette Obituaries Newsletter

Delivered to your inbox every day. https://www.thegazette.com/

Headstone

Eastern Iowa Monument a nice upright headstone with India granite cost around 4K or so

Website https://easterniowamonument.com/ Phone 319-373-0417

Food catering Hy-Vee $1,200

Sam's Club

Paper plates & towels, pop, water, chips cookies, etc. $300

Burial Plots

My parents and I bought burial plots in spring 2021 in a small township cemetery near where I grew up. The total cost for the 2 plots for $1,000. The cemetery was around before the civil war in the 1840's was when they 1st started using it.

Amount cost

So the amount rounding up cost with out headstone or burial plot 6k or so. half of that was the cremation.

then another $500 for the plots and 4k for the head stone so this could cost 10k fairly quick

Obituary & Newspaper

https://www.obituaryhelp.net / with a lot more info there

Template

Person, age, of town, Iowa passed away on month day, 20XX. A Celebration

of Life will be held at venue (full address with town) on

Wednesday May 17 from 3:00 – 7:00 PM.

person was born in town to parents on month day, 19XX,

and spent their childhood living in town, Iowa. they completed their elementary grades at

School in town and graduated from High School in 1971. She

went on to attend the University of Northern Iowa and earned her bachelor’s degree and

master’s degree in education

On April 5,1981 she married husband, and for

most of the XX years, they lived in town. She worked at XX place and then at XX place.

She liked to do XX in her free time as well as volunteer for XX cause

She is survived by her husband person; son person of town; brother person

(person) last name of town; two sisters, and many more

Utilities & subscription services to cancel

Phone internet water gas electric trash service etc

Netflix Amazon Prime and other subscription services watch the credit cards and let them shut down.

Telecommunications & social media

Internet smartphone

Make sure you keep there phone number active for a number of months after they pass away in case people try to reach you after a number of months it may be best to make there old number a Google Voice number and then have them use a Red Pocket phone or something like that on the back end or just run it as 2nd line for yourself.

Email addresses

check them login

online accounts

digital afterlife

Donations and where things you don't want should go?

asking for donations either to help the family or to a nonprofit

donating things that will no longer be needed or wanted around the house etc...

Here is a link to https://crmoms.com/in-and-around-cedar-rapids/spring-cleaning-donate-stuff-cedar-rapids/

I also setup a page on my site about this Donate page

Elder help

Aging Services

UnityPoint Health - AbbeHealth Services - Aging Services enhances the lives of older adults by providing services and resources to assist them in remaining independent Phone (319) 398-3647 Website

Heritage Area Agency On Aging

Heritage Area Agency on Aging is a non-profit organization providing innovative services and access to local resources that improve the quality of life for older adults, adults with disabilities and family caregivers. Phone: (319) 398-5559 https://www.heritageaaa.org/

Tax Help

The volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) Trained and certified volunteers provide free tax preparation for individuals

and families you may also be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) so not only is this free but it could get you money back and help with Medicaid or ACA discount. Here is the local website https://www.uweci.org/what-we-do/our-programs/vita/

Additional links

Linn County has https://www.linncounty.org/130/Community-Resources this page with a lot of local information

https://howtogeton.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/how-to-be-poor-in-america/

https://www.traviswalkerlaw.com/25-steps-for-estate-planning/