I happened to have been reworking our budget this morning. Even if we ditched cable, cell phones and the central air unit it would not compare to the huge dent in our income from healthcare, gas and food.

These three things take a far larger chunk out of our budget than the nice optional things do.
Gas in mandatory most places. We did look at where we could potentially move to allow us to use one car. We really could not find one. Even neighborhoods that were near shopping areas. The homes would be maybe walking distance to a grocery but not walking distance to much of anything else. The current urban planning here has bumped housing further and further from needed services. We also have horribly inept public transit. It would take hours to make a ten minute drive.
Food costs, there is only so much you can do to cut back, scrimp, make it yourself before you just can't cut food costs anymore.
Don't even get me started on healthcare. Our insurance alone is taking the second largest cut out of our monthly budget, just behind our mortgage. That's before you start paying copays, coinsurance and other out of pocket costs.
The reality is that wages don't meet up to even those basic expenses people would have had in the 50's.