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It wasn’t an actual gun-to-the-ribs “Put your hands up and give me all your money” moment, but it felt like it.

That was the gut reaction when I filled up my truck a few days ago. With gas prices averaging a little more than $5 per gallon in Alaska as of today, the pain at the pump shows no signs of slowing. Couple that with a national inflation rate of 3.3% and the seemingly daily jump in the price of groceries and day-to-day essentials, and it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to make dollars stretch.

And good luck if you’re trying to plan any travel out of state while remaining financially sane. The price alerts I’ve set to watch airfares are changing faster than a legislative budget deal on the last day of session.

Those factors — gas prices, grocery prices, airfare prices — got me wondering: What are you doing to cut back on spending and make your dollars go as far as possible? Are you bringing your lunch to work more, skipping the latte from your favorite coffee shop, clipping more e-coupons than normal before making a grocery run? Are you cutting back, altering your spending or putting any personal cost-saving measures into place? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

If you have any tips, tricks or ideas you’re using to cut costs in your everyday life, send them on. Your financial hack may be just what someone needs to save a few more bucks. Consider it a little crowdsourcing experiment from the opinion desk. What’s working for you? What have you cut, swapped, delayed, given up or figured out? What small change has made a noticeable difference?

Send us your best cost-saving ideas at letters@adn.com or via our web form, and we may share a batch of them with readers. Because if there’s one thing more useful than complaining about $5 gas, it’s helping your neighbor figure out how to survive it with a few more dollars left in their pocket.

— Gary Black, opinion editor

Anchorage Daily News
gblack@adn.com

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