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Frugal and Fashionable
Saving Money on Maternity Clothes
By Laura Cone
Claire Winograd of Aliso Viejo, Calif., knows she will have plenty of hand-me-down maternity clothes to wear after she conceives her third child. After all, she has sisters and friends who have had babies. "It's a big box that keeps going around," says Winograd, the mother of Nadav, 4, and Ari, 2.
Experts say it's never too early to put aside money for expenses associated with raising a child, expenses that begin before the baby is born with paint for the nursery, infant car seats and maternity clothes.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2003 report on family expenditures, raising a child to the age of 17 costs parents anywhere from $130,000 to $261,000.
Create a budget for the nine months of pregnancy and a proposed budget for after the baby is born to get in the habit of planning. Money allotted for maternity clothes during the pregnancy may become the budgeted amount for baby diapers and new baby clothes after Baby is born.
Even though she is grateful for the secondhand clothes, Winograd, a money savvy stay-at-home mom, wanted to feel special during her second pregnancy. "I enjoy buying new clothes," she says. "I did not want to go nine months with just hand-me-downs and clothes I'd worn before. Also, I had a couple of special occasions I was going to, like a wedding where I had to wear something nicer. I went to the maternity stores in the mall and found things on sale that were not too expensive."
"I would just wait until something was on sale and buy things online," Winograd says. "I had to return a few things, but it's easier. It's not as much a hassle as it used to be to return things you bought online."
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