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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/yousufq9 on 2026-06-26 17:29:14+00:00.

One kid is in full-time daycare at $1480/month. The other is in after-school care at $620, plus a few days a week at a second site, which pushed us to $2840 last month. We track every dollar because we have to.

For three years, we assumed a Dependent Care FSA was for elder care or some special situation we didn’t qualify for. So we never enrolled. Turns out it can cover up to $5,000 per year pre-tax for daycare, preschool, after-school programs, and licensed summer camp for kids under 13. The money comes out before federal and state taxes hit it.

At our tax rate, that’s around $1250 we won’t owe this year. Not a windfall, but that’s basically a month of groceries and gas, and we don’t have many spare months lying around.

The past three years are gone.

TL;DR: We paid for daycare for three years without enrolling in a Dependent Care FSA. If you pay for daycare, preschool, after-school care, or summer camp, check whether you can use pre-tax dollars before you leave money on the table.