u/Dry-Development8716

Hello! First of all, thanks for all the help on my last post. I'm feeling better now and still figuring some things out.

I've been doing some calculations and test meals, and I've found it's extremely hard to meet my protein goals due to how expensive meat is for me.

For example- 93% lean ground beef is 8 dollars a pound where I am. Half a pound is around 46 grams of protein, meaning 46g protein (in the form of beef) is 4 dollars. In one meal. For me, that is extremely expensive, and it's only the protein aspect of the meal.

My basic question is: How can I get cheap protein in without sacrificing taste or eating 5 eggs a day? I really do not like eggs.
I'm looking for ingredients, recipes, food combos, anything to be honest. Here are some proteins I like and dislike for reference:

Absolute Favorite: Tuna. Beats anything else. I love how it tastes and the only thing holding me back from eating 4 cans a day is the fact I don't want mercury poisoning.

Like:
Turkey is fine if I season it right, just not truly "delicious" like beef can be.
Beef, obviously. I would eat red meat every day every meal if I could afford it.
Chicken is okay, it can be better than turkey but I prefer not to eat it more than once a day.
Shrimp is even more expensive than beef but god is it delicious. Similar to red meat, I'd eat this every day if I could.
Beans are fine, but only when paired with something else. Don't think I could ever eat straight rice and beans.

Dislike:
Eggs. whole eggs, might I add, as I haven't tried just doing liquid egg whites yet. I can eat about 3 eggs a day without wanting to hurl once they start tasting like eggs.
Peanuts / Peanut Butter. Just really do not like the taste.
Lentils. Why do people even eat these?
Greek Yogurt. I really really want to like it, but it tastes like I've offended the cow that made it. The aftertaste is weird, I hate honey so I can't add that, and adding straight sugar would ruin any macros it already had.

Also, it needs saying, I do like using protein powder. It can make it easier to hit the protein I need, but the one I'm getting right now is around 3 bucks for 48g protein and I'd like to get it cheaper if possible. Brand is Optimum Nutrition's Double Rich Chocolate flavor.

For context, I'm very overweight (likely considered morbidly obese) with no gym training in my entire life, and I want to start.
A few days ago I thought that achieving the simple goal of doing a pushup was something I needed to do before I could step foot in a gym. I found a TikTok that said, to build up to it, I could try doing 3 sets of 50 reps of wall pushups.
I decided to cut it in half, doing 3x25. By the end, my arm muscles basically completely gave out. It felt like I lost total control of my arms, I could barely lift them above my head or infront of myself. It's the very end of 2 days later and my arms still hurt extremely bad.

My question is: Did I overdo it? Should I be doing less reps, or am I just weak/prone to being sore? Is that something I can get over? Extra points for helping me know if achieving one pushup before going to the gym is a good or bad idea.

It's things like this that make me really question if I'm even capable of getting in shape one day.