When my wife & I were married, I was a low-ranking man in the USAF, so she surely knew even woithout asking that I did not have a big ,thick wallet. We had very little when married. I have more now, but am in my late ‘80s & worked after 4 yrs. in the military until age 75. My house is about 50 yrs. old & my car is 21 yrs. old. I had this much when my wife died, so you can see it wasn’t a lot. Oh, I would suppose that she would liked to have had more, but so did I. We quietly got along with what we had & lived together succesfully for 59 years until her death. Some would ask how we managed with so little. I really don’t know, but we managed.
My guess is that is because you valued each other over things and neither one of you were selfish or entitled.
A marriage can only work well when BOTH spouses work at it together, instead of one being demanding and selfish, man or woman.
For all the kvetching about women on these threads by the women haters, men are not innocent either and I know plenty of women who can attest to that from their trips to the ER due to the beatings he gave them.
You managed with “so little” by not wanting more than you could reasonably obtain by honest living. Being in agreement and loving each other was enough, not wanting more unrealistically was the key.