We struggled on one waged all the time. It's only now that the DD's have grown up that we are starting to get ahead.
One thing I found that really helped was to get a book, rule up columns and account for every cent. It can be on a spreadsheet, this was before we had a computer. I had one for bill, groceries, spending, savings??, medical, presents etc. We were amazed at how much we could waste on small things.
We had a credit card with a $300 limit which was only to be used in an extreme emergency.
Another thing we did was when we had $10 to spare we were allowed to have takeaway, usually fish & chips. It was the light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to.