I'm in the UK too... with a wife and kids. I've been making money online since 1997, and this current moment in time is frikken rough. Seriously.
Having said that, there's still money to be made. It's just harder than before.
Here's my suggestion. Sign up with affiliate networks (tradedoubler, AffWindow, AffFuture etc). Blob up a few datafeeds on new sites. Google will love them for a few days to a few weeks, then can them (sandbox, dup content). You may make some money while Google's loving the sites. If so, take the same datafeed that made some money and re-write the content then blob it onto a second, new site. Now Google will love it for more than a few weeks and you're golden. This is basically keyword research done for you by Google and then testing the merchant's conversions in one easy step. Follow the "wins".
HTH.