homeeconomics101 | Desperately Seeking Dehumidification

In May, my boyfriend of 5 years and I moved into an absolutely lovely basement apartment. As far as we could tell, its only issue was a bathtub that tends not to drain right. And that's really all we noticed until the end of July – when things started smelling a bit off.

And wet.

And growing mold.

At this point, our bedroom constantly reeks of mildew and yet we cannot find a source of it anywhere. As someone with chronic sinus problems I had taken to really enjoying how humid the apartment was, since for the first time in someplace I lived I didn't constantly have to keep a humidifier running to be able to breathe. But now even I can smell the mildew. The humidity is overbearing and we've had to throw away clothing because mold grew it out of thin air – not there one day, look at the shirt a day later and there's mold on it!

This is a giant disaster not just because it's ruining our things, but because we both have chronic illnesses and I have quite a few severe allergies. And at this point even I with my usual inability to smell much of anything can tell it's mildewy in the air. Both sets of parents cavalierly tell us to buy a dehumidifier (my mother says it is an emergency but doesn't offer us any money, all the others say 'save up for one' as if we can wait 6 months). Neither set of parents actually tries to help purchase a dehumidifier, though at least on my parents' end it's entirely understandable considering how they pay my share of rent (I'm a full-time student) and are trying to deal with high amounts of medical bills for my mother's cancer treatment and a surgery I recently had that they were gracious enough to (somehow) pay for.

I get $1100 a month, fixed income. Period. My share of rent is $400. I have to pay for a land line, electricity, internet service and cell phones, because my boyfriend's income is so meager that he has a job interview tomorrow he's not going to be able to get to if we don't somehow scrounge up extra funds for gas, since my bank account might have $30 in it if I'm lucky. (Money for me comes at the first of the month.)

So: we need to dehumidify this apartment fast, and commercial dehumidifiers are probably not going to do the trick, since we can't find anything even remotely affordable. I cannot spare $200. My credit card needs to be paid off and is maxed out (at $250, after identity theft) so buying on credit is not an option. Buying a humidifier seems to not be an option at all. I've checked craigslist and freecycle.

I am totally out of options. Boyfriend can't even pay his half of rent this month and I was already in hysterics over that.

If anyone has any kind of advice about anything relating to being able to get rid of it all without having to go hungry for a month, I would really appreciate it.