Living Alaska, Cost of Living

All things in life are relative to what you are used to. I lived in San Francisco, California before I moved to Alaska. Things in San Francisco are expensive, but relative to Alaska, well things are not so bad. Except for housing your average cost for anything in Alaska is going to be more than in the lower forty-eight.

Housing costs in San Francisco are in the stratosphere so Alaska is cheap compared to San Francisco. But then in comes to household goods, yikes. I will not candy coat the truth. Alaska is an expensive place to live. When I first went grocery shopping at the local chain store, I almost choked. I average a little over a $100 a week for a single guy. I am not buying steak and lobster’s either. Just your average everyday items, milk, cheese, bread, eggs, hamburger, and my favorite ice cream.

Going out to eat is even more expensive. But where is it cheap these days? Alaska barges in its staple household items. The distance from Seattle to Anchorage is about 1,200 miles. Fuel costs for a tugboat are not cheap, and neither is the labor to operate the tugboats. The costs for tugboat captains and crew will only go up in the near-term future as there is not enough new trainees in the pipeline to replace the retiring tugboat captains.

This does not paint a beautiful picture for the future. There are trains that travel up the Alaskan…