Someone should take them up on the offer -- put their feet to the fire, and actually run the numbers.
A trailer home on 1 acre of land (not crammed together in a "trailer park" because that's not how residential living was in the 60's, especially in the photo)
A single car, in decent condition, enough to fit the whole family
Food (Groceries; mostly home-cooked meals)
Dining out once a week (to mirror the 60's family, not because it's required for young Catholic families today)
Yearly vacation (to mirror the 60's family)
Life insurance (to mirror the 60's family)
Home insurance (to mirror the 60's family)
Electricity
Phone
Water
Gas
Gasoline for car
Car insurance
etc.

Then compare that to a $30,000 salary and see if it adds up.

We can almost match this. 😅🤣

We bought a fixer upper when we first got married and managed to flip it within 2 years to get a $55k down payment for the house in which we currently live.  We bought another fixer upper with 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms and an office dor my husband for about $275 but thankfully got an AMAZING interest rate.  So, after the downpayment we only have a monthly mortgage payment of about $1000 a month.  We couldn't buy a 3 bedroom house with 1000 sq. ft. for that now.

I figure that we spend on average about $300 on grocery a week (for a family of 5 plus a baby who doesn't really eat much).

When I get a new phone it is usually a refurbished one for a couple hundred. But my husband's phone cost him 6-7 hundred when he bought it new a few years ago...  And now his battery is failing and he may need to get a new one again if he isn't able to replace the battery (it is refusing to charge and actually burned out a charger).  

Our Taxes is about $2000 a year for the house and maybe a hundred or so for the used van we got for $10k and $50 car we got from a family member. 

My laptop is a hand-me-down from my husband when his work computer got too slow.   The battery doesn't work and it has to be plugged in all the time or it will crash and take a long time to turn back on.  But...  I mostly only have it for storing pictures and videos of the boys anyhow.

My husband makes somewhere between 80-90k a year (a lot less after taxes).  I stay home and homeschool, bake, sew clothes for myself (and the boys sometimes when we can't find what they need at the thrift store).

So...  We definitely don't live high and we need a lot of fixing in the house (including a new roof).  But we manage somehow to pay all the expenses and live with one income.  We keep trying to save for the roof but had one calamity after another.  The furnace died one year.  Our old van died another year.  We needed major car repairs and had $20k in medical bills another year.  But God always provided.

So...  Yes...  It can be done but sacrifices and thriftiness are definitely needed. Maybe it helps that I was an accountant for my parents farm for 5 years before we got married.