My dad made no plans. He had a plot already next to his parents, but that was it. We knew of a few songs he liked, but my sister got talked into quite a lot of frippery that he may or may not have liked. I personally tried to stay out of it since my sister was pretty emotional and just let her pick what she though was nice. With his funeral, it was around $12K, which is insane, but when my FIL passed away about 6 years ago, MIL went kind of nuts and spent something like $18K - she hated FIL but she didn't want to leave him since that would mean she'd have to work and take care of herself, so she stayed in a pretty messed up marriage. When he died she acted like all of the stuff she complained about in the past never happened and blew way more money than rational beings should consider... but I think it was partially out of guilt and partially out of "impressing the friends/family" sort of showing off.
I'm leaning towards the body farm since I think that's kind of cool. Maybe donating to science if they aren't taking bodies for the farm in my area. I've actually heard that there is a waiting list!
There won't be anyone to really care about a funeral and I've always thought they were ridiculous shows and never wanted one anyway. Helps that I'm an atheist and have no issues with death, and if I go first, husband knows he can do whatever he wants, but I'd personally not want a funeral or for him to waste gobs of money on stupid stuff. I told him he should take a nice vacation instead - put the "fun" back in funeral!
I remember telling my dad when I was a teen that I was leaning towards cremation and just toss the ashes wherever when I died (before I knew about body farms) and he was horrified at the idea and started asking where he would go to "visit" me. I told him that most likely that wouldn't even be an issue due to his age (as he'd go first barring an accident), and that if he was at all religious, that the body is just the shell and whatever was "me" isn't going to be hanging out in a cemetery anyway, is it? So it would be like him going to a closet full of clothes I used to wear to visit...I think I freaked him out.
And then watching the series "6 Feet Under" and doing more research (the husband thought about going into mortuary science) I realized how scammy the whole funeral industry can be. I know it's a necessary evil, but damn, they mark up that stuff so much since the family is emotionally vulnerable. Saw it again when my dad died and my sister was picking out more expensive crap because she didn't want anyone thinking that we didn't love our dad... as if the fancy casket and how much money you spend to bury them was a measure of how much you loved someone. It is outrageous the markup they have on caskets and flowers and the like.
I'd advise you to go to vet a funeral home BEFORE it is needed, and lock down what you want when you're not emotionally as fragile as just after a death. It will be hard, but at least that way, you can consider what is really wanted and deal with the money issues then, and since you'd already have plans in place, that will remove much of the burden when the time actually comes. I know some places do a "pre-need" contract, but I'm pretty sure you can go in and discuss pricing and options without signing a contract first.