The parts of the Trans-Mississippi Department not occupied by Union forces were not affected quite as bad by inflation as, say, Virginia. Kirby Smith assumed extraordinary powers as the department commander, including price controls, the establishment of factories to produce both military and civilian goods, impressment of cotton for foreign trade, etc. In addition, the TMD was the only military department which had a foreign border (Mexico) across which trade could be conducted, thus circumventing the U.S. naval blockade. I don't want to minimize the devastating economic impact the war had all over the South, but things were just a tad bit better in the TMD than elsewhere.
For a comparison of just how bad things were in the larger cities east of the Mississippi, you can't do better than to read "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary" [Jones] and "Four Years in Rebel Capitals" [DeLeon]. They describe in particular how shortages and inflation virtually strangled Richmond.
In another post in this thread, it was pointed out that many merchants were reluctant to accept Confederate currency. Kirby Smith issued directives requiring merchants to accept Confederate money, but little effort seems to have been made to enforce them.