Which Casket? - The Budget

Continuing yesterday's thread of the three primary reasons people use to choose which casket they want to get, we will consider budget today.  Again, you have to choose which of the three is the dominant factor for you.

When people talk about budget, it is from two different angles.  The first is that they can't afford a very expensive item in their fixed budget.  The second is that they have so many ideas that they want to execute that they feel the need to buy several caskets and that really exceeds what they should spend.

Lets take the second one as that is easiest.  Having many ideas is great!  But after trying to design many caskets based on my ideas and failing many times, I have realized that it is hard and not all ideas fit on a casket very well.  So having many ideas you want to do is actually great.

I would suggest in that case that you work with them on paper and try to design a casket, mirror or picture with each idea.  One of those shapes will work for it.  The one that works on a casket is the one you go with.  And meanwhile, you have 'parked' the rest of the ideas on shapes (mirror and picture) that I can support for you for many years forward and that are low in cost (no support structure cost for a stumpwork picture and only around $500 for a mirror).

This comes from experience I have gained in this class myself, trying to design many caskets for the course as well as mirrors.  I have many unfinished casket designs that are such because they just don't fit the symmetry of the object I am trying to force it on well.  So many ideas are good and sometimes you just have to accept that a cool idea would be better as a framed picture on the wall instead of a casket.

Now the back to the first angle, budget is the issue.  While there are seven different options, some are so close in price to make there really only four options - a price point for the structure of nothing (picture), $500 (Short Casket or one of the Mirrors), $1000 (Flat Casket) or over $2400 (Double Casket or Flat Top with Doors).

In my little diagram I use the greater than sign to remind you that there are additional costs like the papers, glue, woven tapes, and lining fabrics to account for and that they scale with the options.  As in there will be less of those for the mirrors than for the double casket.

The first thing you should think about is if putting these items on a monthly plan would make the one you want more affordable.  If so, then use that as a basis.  If not, use the budget number you have to draw the line and choose among the items below that.  While often stitchers oh and ah over the double casket, the short flat casket can be done up so over the top that you would never know that you hadn't gone with the expensive option.