Living costs

Women in the USA- is it expensive to meet basic living costs such as rent or mortgage payments, weekly grocery bill, general household bills like power and Internet? I'm a NewZealander and my fiancé and I are considered by society to be in the upper middle class/wealthy category however we try live on a budget as I was made redundant at only 16 weeks pregnant so we have been living on one income of around $1000 a week and we thought our living costs were fairly affordable but it seems as though it's getting harder and harder to make ends meet. I saw a piece on 60minutes last week that people in the USA are struggling just as we are here in NZ- would you say this is true?