It's a rotten time of year to start such an endeavour. The days are shortening and by winter you're lucky if you have eight hours of decent daylight. That's sixteen hours dark.....you can't sleep sixteen hours, and working in the cold, wet (this is the UK) dark is pretty miserable.
So, on that note, what kind of experience do you have of winter camping ? or late autumn and early spring come to that. What background do you have that is relevant ?
It's all very well to say people did it in the past, and they did, but they didn't do it alone, iimmc.
I'm almost tempted to suggest that you use the time beforehand to get in touch with the folks who live in eco type communes. At least there you can exchange labour for a place to sleep and a seat at the common table. It'd give you an address, and you would be expected to chip in with expenses, but the folks who live on those sites are usually an amazing mix of skills and knowledge.
Not quite totally remote from all modern life but certainly seperate from most of the intrusions.
There is another suggestion, that again would give you both accomodation and a huge learning potential. Look at wwoofing...where you work on organic smallholdings and farms for a short time, and then maybe move along elsewhere.
https://wwoofinternational.org
Food wise, easy kept, easily cooked high carb and protein stuffs. Grains, nuts and legumes if cross mixed will easily give complete proteins (old fashioned vegetarian here).
Oats, dried pea flours (look at the Indian stuff, really cheap for good food) roasted....both can be easily cooked just with hot water. Cheap high carb oily stuff isn't awfully tasty, but more expensive peanut butter, keeps fairly well, as does lard......and it's a lot cheaper than butter if your budget is really tight. Dried fruits, like raisins, are both sweet and tasty and good for your gut, iimmc ? If you're on good foraging land there's always something green to find to do you good. Five packs of noodles for a pound....lot of food I suppose, but packing it and storing it dry is a pain, much like pasta. Buy root veggies and clamp them. Use as necessary and plant some out for later in hope. Sack of spuds is around eight pounds here.....that's a lot of food, washed carrots don't keep well, but turnips do, and again both are high carb and nutritious.
Hunting, trapping, fishing, roadkill buffets, are all possible, in the right situation and permissions, but not as easy as it might seem. Unless you really know your patch and it's seasons, they're not reliable. Seashore where there are shellfish in abundance makes things a little easier, but tides, storms, short days, blooming cold and wet....not that much easier.
I think you really need to think about your situation before Autumn.
Best of luck with it.
M
anyhow......
