Budgeting for Maternity Clothes

I consider myself a thrifty shopper when it comes to clothes. I admit when I find something cute on a clearance rack, I get a surge of excitement. However, shopping for maternity clothes proved to be a whole different ball game. First, I never once found any maternity clothes on sale. I paid full price my entire pregnancy. Second, when I tried to use a coupon on maternity clothes, it was nicely pointed out that the tiny print at the bottom excluded them. After that, I noticed every coupon I ran into excluded maternity clothes. Maternity clothes were proving to be a specialty product. Stores did not have to mark them down in order to sell.


When I mentioned this to a coworker, she recommended stopping by a couple nearby thrift stores that specialized in maternity and infant clothing. I stopped at these stores on my way home from work about once a week. During my pregnancy, I found one pair of shorts, a pair of capris, and one pair of dress pants. Yes, they were significantly less, between $5-$12 each, but they were hard to find. The maternity clothes at these stores had been picked over and it’s easy to understand why. A lot of other women were having the same problem I was, unexpectedly having to pay full price for maternity clothes, and it was getting expensive quick.


This is why I’d recommend a budget for maternity clothes of around $500. If I had been a little savvier, I figure I could’ve purchased all mine for around that much. This includes both professional and casual clothes. If you only need casual clothes, you could cut back some. While you can cut costs by purchasing a belly band that fits over unzipped pants, I kept noticing my zipper hanging out and my belly band riding up. I know this method works for a lot of women, but I gave up on it and purchased traditional maternity pants at about $35 each.


I wore a lot of my regular shirts and simply stretched them out. This was cost effective until after childbirth when I had to buy new shirts because they looked horrible without a pregnant belly.


A couple other cost areas I didn’t see coming were bras and underwear. Yep, I said it. I went through three different bra sizes and two different underwear sizes during pregnancy. And if that wasn’t enough, I found out I needed nursing bras and tanks for breastfeeding after delivery too.


Then there came the moment that my feet hurt so bad while walking at the mall, I went and bought an expensive pair of comfort sandals. I was so miserable that after my purchase, I changed my shoes right there in the store. To me this was a necessity, so if you can, work it into your budget.


These were some of the things that caught me off guard. Hopefully, my experience will you help you better plan on what to expect when budgeting for maternity clothes.