Hello,
First of all I am not an expert but I've practiced a lot and almost tried every material that exists even for a short term. Now about free stuff for preparation you can find plenty in google but it is spread across the internet and the companies because everyone gives just a preview. However there are pdf files that contain preparation material, including rules, strategies and tips. One that I could recommend you for your early stages is a quant pdf from math revolution that is free to access. However, I would recommend you to invest a small amount on veritas (sometimes they have an offer for about 20$) because it helped me a lot and they have both a question bank as well as 7 practice tests, and there is no time limit in your access.
For your second question I'm sure that there a lot of answers but I will tell you what I did considering that we have a similar time schedule. I read at first the rules about both quant and verbal. You will find out that most of them you heard about, if you have an above average level of english and math. After that I started doing many CAT's (Computer Adaptive Tests) and that helped to understand the conditions of the exam (If you want free test you can search gmat club for a thread that has links for 20+ free tests, and if you buy veritas or a similiar option you will have some tests from there). Doing many tests in as similar conditions with the exam as I could gave me confidence with time management and reading explanations about my mistakes helped understand the gmat concept (which is a very specific one).
I hope you find some ideas for getting free resources and building a schedule and I wish you good luck. Don't mind pm me for any clarifications. ?