This is part two of my three-part post series on frugal maternity shopping. You can read the first post here.

While I did manage to score quite a bit of my wardrobe at thrift stores, I did also pick up some things new. However, rather than visiting the usual suspects (Motherhood and Thyme) I looked for other options…

H&M

The H&M in downtown Vancouver carries a limited line of maternity items. Apparently not all H&M locations carry these things so your mileage may vary. While I had absolutely no luck with their maternity pants (I don’t know what kind of pregnant lady would have thighs small enough to fit into them!) I LOVED the basic t-shirts and tank tops I bought there. They cost about half the price of similar items from the specialty maternity stores. They were also longer than any other tops I found, and were still covering my whole belly right up to my 41st week – a feat not accomplished by the couple shirts I had from Motherhood and Thyme.

Online shopping

There are any number of online stores selling cute designer maternity clothes, but when I wanted some inexpensive basics I went with JC Penney. They ship to Canada for a reasonable price and always have lots of sale and clearance maternity items. You can also usually find a discount code over at RetailMeNot that will knock a percentage off your purchase cost. My favourite purchases from JC Penney were a comfy pair of leggings and a robe. I was afraid to order jeans or other pants without trying them on but I did get several shirts that held up well throughout my pregnancy.

Now, while it was handy to be able to pick up inexpensive maternity-specific basics like tanks and leggings , you don’t necessarily have to shop maternity styles just because you’re pregnant. Stay tuned later this week for my final post on this topic…