This is another one of those Japanese expressions where you really can't guess the meaning from the literal meaning of the words at first sight: 「首が回らない」.
Literally, 「首が回らない」 means something like "my neck doesn't turn", or "I can't turn my neck". Well, if you have troubles with your neck, you can actually use this in a literal way. However, there is another meaning too. This is an example of it's use:
「借金で首が回らない」(しゃっきんでくびがまわらない), meaning "I can't make ends meet because of my debts". 「首が回らない」 thus means "having trouble making ends meet", or "having trouble getting by", and is often (always?) used in the sense of financial difficulties. I good translation might be "being up to your neck in debts", or "being up to your ears in debts".
The explanation behind this Japanese expression is that the financial difficulties are restricting your freedom in the sense that you can`t just to what you would like to do.
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