Childcare while job hunting, what worked?

The daycare near me wants more than I can pay. Any experience at all would help. I am willing to trade favours. How long did subsidies take?

I swapped afternoons with another parent. It took some planning and saved us both money.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 11 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.