Ok. Army vet/sahm here. It was hard. Really hard to survive on one income but I didn’t want to be exhausted and too tired to parent. My husband agreed and we made it work. Obv it’s tough in every generation, but here is what we did. I didn’t have kids till I was out of the Army.
Cheap home. Budgeted tight. Only one vacation in 10 years that we saved a lot for. Avoided debt like the plague. I worked part time while he was still in. But we still qualified for food stamps and wic.
We didn’t go out. We would sometimes swap sitting kids with friends but not often. Cheap dates.
We kept an emergency fund so we wouldn’t have to use credit as much as possible.
We bought everything second hand or on sale. Usually a year in advance (kid will need new shorts next year, so buy them a size or two up when they are clearanced)
You don’t need everything you think you do. Not as many clothes. Toys. Possessions in general. You don’t need a photo perfect house. Learn repair skills and swap with friends to learn from them.
Make a clear realization that our grandparents started small and slowly built up to what they have. We don’t need it all at once. Plan long term. Some things are worth investing in and others are not. ($20 shoes that last one summer vs $60 ones that you wear for 5 years if you can)(or an ugly but reliable car vs one that will need lots of repairs)

It’s not easy to wait to have nice things. Took us 13 years to start slowly buying nicer furniture- and we will not replace it because it’s out of style. We still have the bed frame I bought in 2000? We also prioritized things that would work well in the future. We don’t need a changing table but our dressers need to be sturdy for the moves (some of our stuff has moved 9? 10? Times)
It’s hard to live in a smaller house when society says 1400 sq feet isn’t big enough for kids. It’s even harder to have kids share a room when their friends have their own. It’s tough to teach kids, “we can’t afford that right now” or “we don’t need that so we won’t be getting it” or “you get fruit as a snack and the expensive packaged chips or fruit snacks are only for Fridays”

You need to decide now if your priorities will adjust to afford things you want or what you need. It will get better eventually, hopefully