I’m over 60 years old. Poor overall health. 6’ 2" 284 pounds. Fairly certain that most arteries are clogged as a 1/4 mile walk completely exhausts me! Just moved my daughter and grandson in with me and we’re working very hard on starting a KETO diet for all three of us with a MINIMAL budget. I NEED to stay alive for several more years for them. Is KETO going to be the saving grace for me? My job disappears in less than two weeks and I will have to survive on unemployment until I can draw minimal Social Security @ 62.5 years old. 401K went in the toilet in 2008 just like everyone else so I don’t have one now. Sorry for the doom and gloom. Just need to give a picture of my situation. Good health is all that can save me now…PLEASE don’t suggest doctor or hospital visits as that’s 100% out of the question. All they want is another payment on their Porsche or Mercedes. They couldn’t give a rats patootie about me…
Old man just trying to keep breathing
Cheese in bulk, avocados on sale, bacon trimmings are a fantastic deal, green veggies on sale, walnuts and pecans at value, local eggs if you can find them, avocado oil is high heat and super good, make your own ranch dressing
That’s not an automatic given, although there are lots of folks out there with undiagnosed atherosclerosis.
Welcome to the forums, and don’t worry about the gripes, we all have’em sometimes.
You CAN do this on a tight budget - in fact I believe there’s a thread called “keto on a budget.” If you need suggestions once you look around, all you need to do is ask. You might get sick of eggs, because they are one of the best and least expensive keto foods, but there are tons of ways to fix them to relieve the boredom. If you end up eating a lot of chicken thighs/legs (they are 99c/lb or less in my neck of the woods), at least you’ll have a good source of high quality protein, and you can season it up & add fat 100 different ways.
However, WE DO. I think you can do this, and I hope it brings you renewed health and hope. If you haven’t visited the “how-to” area, go ahead & do that, and get started trying to absorb the wealth of info you’ll find around here.
We have a saying here - “KCKO” - Keep Calm, & Keto On!” Once again, welcome. 
Welcome! This forum is great! You will get all the help you need.
Welcome,
If it makes you feel better, I have cut my food bill in nearly half I don’t buy crap anymore. Being exhausted is not always a sign of clogged arteries, you could be on the insulin roller coaster. Give this diet a chance and you will improve every day.
OFJ, you ain’t THAT old. Lots of us are seeing Social Security at our houses.
Make the diet work. Seriously, don’t “try”. Make it happen. Ditch the carbs. Don’t even buy 'em. I know they’re cheap. But your goal is to survive, and ultimately, thrive. You can do it. It’ll take some time but you can do it. You may not feel like $1M in a week and you probably won’t take off 30 pounds the first week either. But if you’re serious about making keto work for you, it will.
Your body is capable of some incredible amounts of healing once you quit feeding it the stuff that causes inflammation and fat storage. Feeding it protein and fat are what it needs to repair itself. Don’t go nuts with the exercise as you begin your keto journey but move. Our bodies were designed to be active. I suspect that within a few weeks, you’ll probably feel like you have more energy anyway.
You may not be able to afford the best of everything but do the best you can. Find the sales. Find the local farmers markets. Find people growing stuff you want to eat. Maybe see if you can find someone to sell you eggs from their own flock of chickens. (Often, they’re good quality and some at good prices.) You might even find someone who will sell you 1/4 or 1/2 or even a whole cow if you want to buy your beef that way. (Sometimes you can even go and pick out the cow while it’s still on the farm. Depends on where you are.) If you have the space for it, grow a garden. Seeds don’t cost a whole lot. If you don’t have a lot of space but just want to grow some salad greens, that’s not exactly rocket science and good salad greens can be expensive in the store (and come with risks of listeria and ecoli sometimes, too.) Hey, if you have the place to do it, you could even raise some animals of your own but that is a bit of a longer term proposition and not always as cost effective as it might seem.
Good luck!!
Budget keto is both possible and actually fun. I did it for several months and my core protein was driven by whatever was on sale week to week. Whenever something was I would load up and either use or freeze the extra. One week it would be big value packs of skin-on chicken thighs, another week is was half-price pork chops or blade steaks. Bacon is usually on sale, for one brand or another and I kept to under $4 a lb on average for months when the list price was $7-8/lb for the basic bacon (nothing is cheap in San Francisco). Look out for the half price joints of meat (e.g. a big beef chuck roast, or a pork butt or ham joint) which will make many meals, to have with various sauces and vegetables (also bought on sale). Eggs, cheese (on sale), nuts (get the best you can but peanuts will do for starters - but don’t binge) will fill in snacks and sides. 70-80% chocolate is cheap at places like Trader Joes, Aldi for a sweet treat and I find heavy cream is on sale every few weeks to stock up. I get some smoked salmon now but typically stick to my sale driven buying for proteins to this day.
As to your poor fitness, it may mean your arteries are clogged but not necessarily. You may well find that when you reduce inflammation, lose weight and gain keto energy, you will improve your fitness faster than you could imagine and not only live longer but also much better. Good luck and the community is here for you all.
Don’t forget to search the forums too for quick answers to questions others have asked before.
And when you eat up the chicken, be sure to throw the bones into a bag in the freezer. Then when you get good amount, simmer up some nutritious bone broth! (lots of recipes floating around, just do a search for Bone Broth recipes).
We are doing Keto on retirement fixed income. We do exactly like the others have suggested: buy what’s on sale! I actually stash a little each week into a “bulk buying” envelope, so when stuff is on sale, we have the cash to take advantage. Saves a LOT of money to buy that way.
Yup, keto on a budget… totally doable.
Welcome, Soon-To-Be-Fitter-Joe!
You may want to consider taking Vitamin K2 in the Mk7 form. The benefit according to reading I have done (please do your own research, I have no training) is that it directs the calcium to go into your bones where it is supposed to and not to places it is not like your arteries.
Avoid sugar (duh!) even artifical ones if possible, avoid seed oils either for cooking or contained in foods including soybean, corn, canola, cottonseed and some others. I generally cook in avocado oil but animal fats are a great option as well and can be very inexpensive.Good luck
I was going to suggest that. There are some animal foods that are good sources of K2 Mk4 such as certain cheeses.
I have never tried natto but I have heard it is an acquired taste which most people outside of Asia never acquire
Not yet…but fasting is really cheap!! Wait til you feel better and doing well on fats but I can’t believe how much food I was wasting and now saving on, when I started fasting! Not to mention the time: shopping, cooking, dishes, prep for work. You get a whole new budget of time and money as well as healing your body and mind. We’re with ya!
@OldFatJoe
And after you cook up the bacon, save the fat that melted off. Strain if you prefer, then put into a little jar. Can keep in fridge (or not) and use for cooking. Free cooking oil!
@Saphire, natto is a bit stinky alone, but when mixed into other foods it is similar to canned beans. I put it on a skillet pizza last week, and hardly noticed 
Japanese usually mix mustard and soy sauce into it and eat it on top of hot rice, and that can be a challenge if you aren’t used to it. Actually, it is a Tokyo to northeastern Japan food–people in Osaka and on down to Kyushu absolutely detest it!
If your arteries were really “clogged” you would probably have other symptoms than just getting exhausted from walking. That said you are embarking on a great thing for your health here. Some cheap keto foods - eggs, ground beef, cheese, bacon, lunch meats. Veggies are fine too but I feel that meat and eggs probably gives the biggest bang for the buck.
The good news is much of the cheaper cutes of meat are the fattiest and therefore good for Keto.
Chuck roast is usually pretty cheap around here, or at least it goes on sale pretty often where I shop. And a good sized chuck can be quite a lot of eating.
I do mine in a sous vide but I would guess a crock pot might also be a possibility to get it tender. (?)
Just to compare, I got my mom (84, arthritis, food addiction) to go Keto and she’s already feeling much better in that she has a lot more endurance and feeling she lost in her feet is returning. A week ago we got my dad (88, congestive heart failure for 5 years now, life long orange juice addict) to go Keto and I can’t wait to see his improvements, I know he’ll get them. He’s already losing weight around his middle. All this to say, it’s never too late! Welcome.