I had the same problems few years ago. You need to wait that moment, when your skills will be higher on 90% of designers, and there will be good money and interesting work. Good specialists earn good money and they are value. Also I can recommend to move in not so expensive city for 1-2 yers. You can find cheap places to live at http://voyagestic.com/, there are estimated budgets for all of the cities.
Here is a rule - you become a master after 10 000 hours of practice.