Childcare while job hunting, what worked? after 5 years as a teaching assistant

The daycare near me wants more than I can pay. I would rather hear the honest version than the polite one. I looked into subsidies but the forms are long. Is there an emergency option?

Libraries and community centres run free activities that gave me a couple of hours.

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It made the follow-up calls so much easier.