This may sound trite, but it's easy if you stay single. When I graduated college (in the middle of the dot com bust), I made $30k at my first programming job. I lived in a cheap ($525/mo) apartment in Houston and drove a used car which was paid off. Not only was I able to live comfortably (see a movie, buy a cd or eat out whenever I felt like it), I was also able to pay off my student loans at an accelerated rate of $500/mo. Subtracting just the student loan payments would have put me at an equivalent salary of $24k.
That being said, I can't imagine raising kids on that wage.
I mostly agree, and I didn't feel particularly poor when I was a grad student making $24k/yr either. That was $24k with health insurance, though, which is probably another $5k value if I'd had to buy similar insurance privately. Also, I didn't have a big-screen TV, dishwasher, washing machine, or dvr, though I did have a cell phone, internet access, and refrigerator.
That being said, I can't imagine raising kids on that wage.