I had the same feeling -- have you considered emigrating to a lower cost of living area? I'm looking into my Italian passport, I might move to Sicily, or bounce around SE Asia.

I've had my work literally go into whitepapers uncited, and folks simply refuse to answer my emails about the issue, so the plan is absent one of the places I'm talking to now hiring me, to just... leave. To emigrate.

(But maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow.)