I'm only about 6-8 hours in and been taking my time but resources are very scarce on survivor so far unless I'm missing a lot of hidden resources.
Second half is quite different in the way you approach combat, but for the first half I find it quite easy to preserve resources.
General Guideline to playing survivor mode (having cleared it in 33 hours)
1. Don't get shot at. I'd rather throw a cocktail hidden than engaging in open combat and then using a medkit.
2. Stay hidden (duh). SHOOT WHILE PRONE, as shooting crouched means your character is actually standing when you aim and can be seen from across the map. It's okay to alert enemies or killing some of them in sight of other NPCs. Just make sure you have a plan to lure and kill or run away. Throwing a brick and striking is a no go for stealth. Bricking => grab=>stealth kill is the way to go if you have trouble grabbing. Some NPCs taking the high ground are worth killing off using a rifle&scope and going loud so don't be too stingy on them. Just make sure you don't waste rifle rounds on enemies that you can kill using another weapon. Also, feel free to kill the final few by going loud. You don't need stealth if there's nobody to see it. Judge how many enemies are left by using their dialogue against them.
3. Learn to dodge through the usual infected and humans. Never melee anything else, as you'll likely come out dead or enduring lots of HP loss.
4. Cocktail/booby trap dogs and their handlers. That safely kills them and avoids the risk of being spotted and engaging in open combat. Dogs are annoying as hell. Learn to hate them more than Abby. They are priority #1 without a doubt, and have a special place in my heart for using my booze. Yes that alerts everybody but that's going to happen with every encounter no matter what.
5. AI is quite good in this game and their unsuspecting search pattern is actually harder to predict than their Search and destroy pattern, so you'll actually want them to come out looking for you once you've cleared your initial area and established a safe zone for you.
6. Choose your skills WISELY. The skills I put in high priority is the following:
1. Entire Stealth Tree, all the way up to Faster Stealth Kills - Essential for stealth. (first upgrade book and entire should be maxed ASAP, also gives silencer with its upgrade, which is vital late game)
2. Precision line - Get Listener range upgrade ASAP, doesn't need explaining.
3. Then save your supplements, and wait for the final book, where you'll see the explosive line. I didn't see too much reason to use the explosive arrow, so I leveled it up to the fourth skill, giving you Craft Explosive Arrows, Improved Trap Mines, Improved Molotovs, and Craft More Trap Mines. Trap mines have huge range and will save you in the latter parts (one certain type of infected), so getting 2 traps for the price of one is ESSENTIAL. Molotovs getting more bang for the buck is also good.
4. Lastly, get craft more arrows. Good resource sink because you can't do much else with scissors and tape other than upgrading your melee weapon, which Ellie really doesn't need.
5. Anything else you have left over.
7. Get damage boost / scope mods ASAP, and save up for ~100 parts for bow as the bow mods are "CRITICAL" to the bow being remotely useful. You'll see why when you actually use the rangefinder upgrade.
8. Day 3 is where you'll be quite resource limited according to my play through, but mainly because you'll be force to empty your arsenal through several encounters. The is the point in those encounters: use the loud weapons and mines freely, but save up on silent weapons. You should save pistol rounds and bows for normal encounters.
The most important skill for the second half after listening range upgrade imo is shiv upgrade. #2 is craft more pipe bombs/improved silencer as you'll be using a lot of that.
So many games put me off with just control/gameplay aspects that I can't change that more often than not will just have me quit in frustration rather than slog through it. I only tweaked a few options here and there but I bet the game could be made anywhere from very easy to very difficult. I have no problem with this, if folks want something more akin to a gratuitous walking simulator for the story, good for then. Likewise if folks want this to be a punishingly brutal experience with little resources and facing perception level 10 enemies with 20/20 vision and perfect hearing, then go for it. 
