April 11, 2026

5 Receipts Home Daycare Owners Forget to Save Every Month

If you run a home daycare, almost everything you spend on your business is tax deductible. The problem isn't that providers don't have deductions — it's that they forget to save the receipts that prove them. Here are five expenses most home daycare owners pay for every month but rarely document.

1. Grocery store runs for daycare meals and snacks

If you're buying food for the children in your care, that's a deductible business expense. This includes snacks, drinks, meals, and even paper plates and napkins you use during mealtimes. The IRS allows you to deduct the actual cost of food provided to daycare children. If you're enrolled in the CACFP food program, you can use the standard meal allowance rate instead — but either way, you need to keep records of what you bought and when.

The easiest habit: snap a photo of every grocery receipt the same day you shop. If you wait until the end of the month, you'll forget which trips were for daycare and which were personal. In DaycareProfit, you can attach the receipt photo right when you log the expense — it takes about 10 seconds and you never have to think about it again.

2. Cleaning supplies

Disinfectant wipes, hand soap, paper towels, trash bags, laundry detergent for daycare linens — all of it counts. Home daycare providers go through cleaning supplies faster than most households because you're required to maintain a sanitary environment for the children. These are deductible as supplies on your Schedule C (Part II, Line 22).

Most providers buy these at the same store as their personal groceries. That's fine, but you need to separate or mark the daycare items on the receipt so you can prove the expense if the IRS asks. With DaycareProfit, you log the daycare portion as its own expense, attach the receipt photo, and the app categorizes it under “Supplies” on your Schedule C automatically. No highlighting, no sticky notes.

3. Toys, books, and art supplies

Crayons, construction paper, paint, play-dough, picture books, puzzles, and educational toys are all deductible business expenses. They fall under supplies or “other expenses” on your Schedule C. Dollar store runs count too — you don't have to buy from a specialty store for it to be deductible.

These small purchases add up fast. A provider spending $30 a month on craft supplies is looking at $360 a year in deductions they might be missing if they're not saving receipts. In DaycareProfit, you log each purchase in about 10 seconds, snap the receipt, and the app keeps a running total of your supplies deduction all year — so you always know exactly where you stand.

4. Mileage for daycare-related errands

Driving to the store for daycare supplies, dropping off a child, picking up food for lunch, going to a training workshop — all of those miles are deductible. For 2026, the IRS standard mileage rate is $0.725 per mile for business use. That means a 10-mile round trip to the store is a $7.25 deduction, and it adds up over the course of a year.

The key is logging it. You need to record the date, destination, purpose, and miles driven. The IRS won't accept a lump estimate at the end of the year — they want contemporaneous records. DaycareProfit lets you log mileage as a transportation expense right alongside your other costs, so everything ends up in one place when your accountant needs it.

5. Small home repairs and maintenance

Did you fix a fence in your yard where the kids play? Replace a broken cabinet lock? Pay someone to deep-clean your carpets? These are deductible. Home repairs that benefit your daycare are business expenses. If the repair is in a space used exclusively for daycare, you can deduct 100% of the cost. If it's in a shared space (like the kitchen), you deduct the business-use portion based on your Time-Space percentage.

Providers often pay for small repairs in cash and never think about it again. Take 10 seconds to log it in DaycareProfit, snap a photo of the receipt, and it becomes a legitimate deduction that's already categorized under “Repairs & Maintenance” on your Schedule C. No note-writing, no shoebox — it's done.

The bottom line

None of these are exotic deductions. They're everyday expenses that home daycare owners already pay for. The only difference between a deduction and a missed deduction is a receipt. If you're not saving them, you're overpaying on taxes. And remember — the IRS requires you to keep receipts for at least 3 years from the date you file. Digital copies stored in DaycareProfit count, and you can download them to your computer or email them to yourself as a backup anytime.

For the full list of everything you can deduct, check out our guide to every tax deduction for home daycare providers. And if you're tired of losing track of receipts, our receipt organizer guide shows you how to go paperless in minutes.