HORRIBLE cough lots of phlegm, been awhile. Help?

Okay so a month ago, I had a cold.. Normal stuff, you know: Sore throat, stuffy nose, cough.

And then near the end my coughs would have mucus, right?

Well that cough hung around for a little while,and then last week it started up again. No other symptoms, just a cough.

And it's an aggressive cough at that. I can only hold it in for so long, and I can't just clear my throat and it does the same job... No I'll be coughing.

Well it wasn't bad at first, just annoying and it irritated my throat when it was dry..

But today, I start hacking up, and there's a LOT of phlegm and I spit it out but it's like so thick that it gets caught up in my throat and makes me gag.

So as of right now, every time I swallow, I feel like all my saliva is moving past the mucus, and if I were to start coughing right now, I'd be other the trash can for a good minute, trying to get everything up while at the same time heaving from it.

What the hell do I do?

Doctor, obviously, but I don't have insurance... So what else could I do to help it, and also WHY is it like this?