That might seem awful, but that was standard life in the 80s. My parents' families ate out like once a year growing up, never had cable, drove cars until the wheels fell off. My mom had handmade clothes growing up because clothing was still kind of expensive back then, so her grandma would make them new dresses in the summer for the upcoming schoolyear, then sweaters and such in the winter time.

The 60s/70s/80s were not some golden era. People struggled then as now. Economies shifted, jobs migrated from one region to another, cities decayed. They suffered through inflationary periods, deflationary periods, shortages, surpluses, etc.