Oh I forgot to mention... they did sell their bass boat and motorhome... so I guess some sacrifices were made.
One thing that has changed since I was young is the trend to burden consumers with recurring (non-loan) payments: alarm systems, lawn maintenance, cell phone premium "plans" (with cost of $1000 phone wrapped into the monthly "contract").
Then there are pimped out cable and Internet bundles. Plus add in insurances premiums for this and that. Home and automobile extended "warranties". Microsoft's Office 360, and other "services". There are more schemes to lock you into some form of recurring payments than you can imagine. This is in addition to car loans, revolving lines of credit, and mortgages. Everyone is a shyster trying to part you and your money.