In my case, I was one of 5 kids in a lower middle class home. So, not really that far down.
My dad was the son of a farmer, one of 13 kids, and we lived in a trailer on the farm my first 4-5 years. While there, he was building (actually building) a ranch home and owned a very small company that made and put in (later just put in when plastic came along) field tile for drainage - I'm in the Black Swamp area of Ohio so it's necessary. My 2 brothers, at an early age, went with him to work and learned the business then.
We lived about 3 miles from the nearest small town, and 20 miles from a mid-sized city in the Mid-west.
My dad purchased one brand-new car in his life, and a pickup for the business. That is the only car we had until he finished restoring classics. My 3 brothers each got an old car ('57 Chevy, ?yr Ford, and one I can't remember) in awful shape, that Dad taught them to restore and was drive-able when they got their license. He had to sell his '56 Crown Victoria when he bought his new car (family got bigger) but in the 90's was able to finally get another, and damn, if it wasn't the same one - worse shape though.
Mom had to go to work so he bought a '64 Mustang and restored it for her to drive.
Never short of food, but we raised a lot of our own, and canned and froze a lot. They would buy a steer to freeze each year.
My folks paid for my sister's college, and mine for a year - my choice to quit, not theirs. We were raised knowing we needed scholarships, and acted like that in high school. I remember I owed the college $600 in 1976 - so yes, it was very inexpensive.
Looking back ,the debt they had was a lot to them, but they were frugal, as was the farmer way. But, my mother will never have to borrow from her kids to live.
For entertainment, the family went camping, PRACTICALLY EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND! I grew to not like camping at all, though we did visit some places I'm glad we went to.
We also went to Cedar Point every summer as a family. I'm sure the $20 admission was not cheap to them.
I remember most years we went to my Dad's family's family reunion. That was always another form of entertainment because there were so many kids near my age. (Though they weren't all there, I have 85 first cousin, only 5 on my Mom's side!)
It was a very family based life. I was shown how important it was to do things for myself when possible, and though it wasn't a conscious thought, that's probably one of the reasons why I fell in love the TheHusbandHalf.
Forgot to add that there were a couple of years when I was in elem/jr high that wee were eligible for free lunches. My Dad was adament that his kids would never get those?