Maternity Clothes

I absolutely love maternity clothes. They are just so cute these days and I find myself being drawn to clothes that I would never consider being a part of my regular wardrobe. The only drawback of course is that my frugal self has a hard time spending money on clothes that will only last a few months (when else in life do we purchase clothes that we know we will outgrow :)). I have been blessed to have lots of people share their maternity clothes with me and even found a few items at a yard sale where the lady was ready to give me her entire wardrobe for $5. But this past week I've been on a hunt for a few more maternity items that will hopefully make it through the end of the pregnancy. My quest was for a bathing suit for my aqua class and a pair or two of jeans. I'm sure there are several nice maternity stores around Raleigh that I could have gone to, but for my budget my main shopping areas for maternity clothes are Target, Kohls, Old Navy and an occasional glance at the sale rack at GAP maternity.

* Kohls - I enjoy shopping at Kohls for my husband but tend to get overwhelmed by all the clothes stuffed on the racks in the women's department - the maternity section is no different. To me their selection is very limited and they don't tend to get new items very often. A plus is that the sale prices make the clothes very reasonable.
* Old Navy - Old Navy is one of those stores that I frequently visit to see what's new but I rarely purchase anything. I did find they have great deals on short and long sleeve maternity t-shirts that give you a little extra length at the bottom, but that is about as far as it goes for me.
* Target - Another favorite shopping spot of mine but I have a hard time getting a good fit.
* Gap maternity - I always love their clothes and the fit is much better than their sister store, Old Navy, but my pocketbook and guilt don't usually allow me to buy (or even try on). This shopping trip however I did find a pair of jeans and after looking at the previously mentioned stores I decided to buy them (even at their $68 price tag!!) because I thought this was the end of the line. However, I will be returning the jeans today after finding two suitable pairs of jeans at Motherhood for less than the price of that one pair of jeans.
* Motherhood - Here's another store that has clothes packed in (or at least the one at Triangle Town Center) but the fact that it is packed of maternity clothes leaves you with the feeling that there HAS to be something there for you. After trying on 7 different bathing suites and 10 different pairs of jeans I finally left the store satisfied. I even came to the conclusion that at $16.99 a pair of jeans can fit "good enough" for a pregnant woman. The one thing at the store is that you need to make sure you have time to try on the clothes, in my opinion, since there is a no return policy on swim suits and a 10 day return policy on all other clothing.

I think I now have enough clothes to make it through April as long as the belly doesn't expand too much. Then with two little ones under the age of two I'll definitely be ready to send the clothes out for someone else to use for awhile!