Hi everybody. Planning a trip this November starting at the southern end of the AT and hiking north for 3-4 weeks. I'm gearing up with a 0degree down sleeping bag and a nice warm pad but that leads me to my question. I need a shelter but cant spend more than $200. Thought about just using my eno tarp lowered to thw ground and covering the ends with smaller tarps. Would this be sufficient? Ive hiked quite often in these southern winters but winter backpacking is new to me.

I hike in the Ohio-Kentucky-Tennessee area, and I have to think that a 3-season tent would work just fine. You might look at the REI-brand tents on their website; I just did, and found 8 or 10 one and two person tents on sale for under $200, plus some other brands. Moosejaw is offering 30% store credit right now, so a $300 tent would give you $90 of store credit to use for other stuff (you need to read how it works before you buy anything; it's not usable on all of their inventory, but there's a lot of good stuff that it applies to.) If you had $200 to spend on a tent, and $100 to spend on other gear, you might be able to get a more expensive tent and use store credit for the other gear.

Your post doesn't really tell us a lot about what you want the shelter to do. I used tarps a lot way back when, and they worked OK to keep precipitation off but let a lot of wind (and blowing snow) in, unless I really closed down the windward end - which can be a little tricky when you're trying to use hiking poles and get everything taut all by your self. I mostly used them in combination with a bivy bag, which served the same windbreak purpose a tent does. When I finally switched over to tents, I found I was much more comfortable in a tent in winter than I had been in a tarp, and for the same weight. A solo tent might be a good alternative to your tarp - it would probably be easier to rig when you're tired and cold, too.

Thanks for the info, a huge help. Ultimately I am wanting to purchase a 4 season tent so I am not to keen on buying a 3 season just for this trip. I will probably go with your idea and use a bivy and a tarp sounds warm enough and light enough for my standards.

You might want to take a look at the REI Minimalist - it weighs about a pound, and is a good value. I used one for a year, about 15 years ago, and in combination with a one-pound silnyon tarp, it was a very versatile and functional shelter.