There's a lot of traps when you're living pay check to pay check and suggesting people cut more ignores that there are solid floors on how cheaply you can live and minimum wage is below or just barely above that in a lot of places. Traps include not being able to buy bulk cheap items because they cost more than you can afford or not being able to buy longer lasting items because they cost more than you can save.
Consider just transportation for a minute. The options are fairly simple; walk, bike, public transit or a car. [0] The first two take a while and are very weather dependent so if you live in some parts of the country they're not really options year round and even where they are they take time out of other activities like childcare and cooking (and cooking is one place you can save money but doing so often takes time the one or two shitty low wage jobs don't give you). Public transit is a mess in the US outside of a few cities. For cars cheap means older and by extension more maintenance costs from regular break downs, buying a slightly better more reliable but more expensive car is difficult because you always need a car and the one you have keeps breaking down or other things you similarly had to buy a cheaper but less resilient version of keeps breaking.
[0] For where I live those would take 3.25 hrs, 50 minutes, ~1.5 hr, and 20 minutes respectively.
Of course there are 'floors' to prices. Of course there are regional differences in cost of living. Of course. Of course. But that's not the argument here. Are you really trying to argue that in America it is not possible to live below your means? Really? Really really?
I mean... There are billions of dollars in remittances being sent by immigrants (of all income levels) working legally and illegally back to their families in their home countries. How are immigrants able to save? And yes, it should be an obvious statement that people, even poor people, in poor countries, find ways to save as well.
Consider just transportation for a minute. The options are fairly simple; walk, bike, public transit or a car. [0] The first two take a while and are very weather dependent so if you live in some parts of the country they're not really options year round and even where they are they take time out of other activities like childcare and cooking (and cooking is one place you can save money but doing so often takes time the one or two shitty low wage jobs don't give you). Public transit is a mess in the US outside of a few cities. For cars cheap means older and by extension more maintenance costs from regular break downs, buying a slightly better more reliable but more expensive car is difficult because you always need a car and the one you have keeps breaking down or other things you similarly had to buy a cheaper but less resilient version of keeps breaking.
[0] For where I live those would take 3.25 hrs, 50 minutes, ~1.5 hr, and 20 minutes respectively.