You can always cut back on expenses, you can't just increase your salary. I will take high cost of living with a high salary any day and just cut back on non essentials. If you're eating out all the time and a meal is $20 vs $5, that will add up to a lot, but if you're spending 50 cents on an egg instead of 10 cents, you'll still be making way more in a HCOL area. Plus programming has the best paying remote opportunities, so you can have the best of both worlds if you're talented.