I have a wife and two kids, we rent an expensive house on the countryside. I struggle to find enough work even though I have a university degree and I taught my

I have a wife and two kids, we rent an expensive house on the countryside. I struggle to find enough work even though I have a university degree and I taught myself programming (R). I feel totally constrained every day. I guess that is living by other peoples rules. So my own rules (which I am working towards) would mainly be decreasing our minimal monthly expenses. This is hard in a country where the norm is to earn a lot, spend even more, pay the highest taxes in the world and where the government wants to make everything even more homogeneous.