What is the best type of affordable flooring that looks nice

Depending on your budget-- do not discard the idea of linoleum or vinyl sheet flooring-- both are rather old fashioned but are very affordable and durable. So check them out-- I had sheet vinyl that was a copy of a parquet floor-- fooled folks all the time-- Lord knows it was a whiz to clean.
Good luck

Old house? I would say woos wood wood. BUT you can buy the type of wood where a thin layer of nice wood is ''glued'' (by the manufacturer) on top of compressed wood. If you are going to put it in place yourself, buy ''clickable'' wood piece (do not know the exact technical terms in English - i'm French). But with that system, you do not need to nail the floor in place. It is nor easy but it is easier!

My best friend installed some of the Harmonics brand glueless, laminate flooring (from Costco) in his den a couple of years ago. It was easy to install and it looks good too. He bought the packages when they had a $5 off coupon for them. They were like $21.99 after coupon and each package covers like 17 or so sqft. Doing the math, it comes out to about $1.30/sqft. Not a bad price for the flooring! Oh. and it comes with a 25-year warranty too.

tile..so clean and fresh

Pergo Flooring..looks nice and it is not expensive.

if wood flooring is too expensive for you (which it can be), go for rugs intermixed with the floorboards. if that doesnt work, then try tile. its easy to clean up, and there is very little maintenence, and it is usually low cost too