When I want to shop for my sister, who’s around a size 22, I go to Catharine’s. It is a chain, but not as well known a chain as, say, Lane Bryant’s. My sister is a professional woman and needs to look nice. However, she’s not old and she also likes to look like she’s part of the current fashion picture.

Sometimes the larger woman’s section of a department store has clothes that look rather frumpy. It’s as if all plus-sized women are old before their time! But that isn’t true at Catharine’s! She told me about this store when I asked where I could purchase something for her for her birthday, and from then on I’ve been shopping there for her and other friends. I can either pick up a gift with the help of a nice saleswoman or buy a gift card.

There’s one near her in New Jersey and one near me in Pennsylvania, so it’s an easy trip. I was pleasantly surprised when I first walked in to the one near me. There’s soft lighting and racks of things that look fun and appealing. They’ll take a current style and adapt it to the larger woman so it looks good and not silly. Of course, we’re all concerned about money these days, but sometimes the clearance racks in the plus-size areas of the department stores look pretty drab. The other nice thing about Catharine’s is that they sometimes offer coupons through mail or newspapers. Combine that with days where there’s 40 percent off everything, and you’re able to replenish your work or leisure wardrobe for a very affordable price.

 It can be fun as well as saving you a bundle of cash to shop for inexpensive plus sized clothing at Goodwill, and other thrift stores.

If you live in a large enough city to have a ‘nicer’, more expensive neighborhood, or outlying or surrounding cities, definitly check out the Goodwill or Salvation Army stores in those ritzier areas. The stores there often have a better selection, and their clothes are usually more gently and less often worn than in a poorer part of town.

One of the best things about plus sized clothing is that quite often, the former owner has only worn the item a few times before losing weight and taking a smaller size, leaving their next- to- new clothes all for you.

Another really cheap place to purchase new plus sized clothing is a chain of stores in Phx., AZ called “Suzies Deals”. All their clothes are $5.99 per item, or less. They have almost, or maybe even as many racks of plus sizes as they do missy, and jr. miss. Often they have expensive brands amongst their selection, like Charlotte Russe, and Abercromby and Fitch. Surprisingly, they have a fairly liberal exchange policy too.

If you want to save money on clothing of any kind and/or size, buy off-season, i.e. buy next summer’s swimsuit for an easy 75% off by purchasing it this fall, when the stores are trying to rid their stores of last season’s merchandise to make way for the upcoming season’s.

There are now many stores that carry plus size clothes, whether they are regular wear or maternity. The most obvious of them are the larger chains. Almost all of them have seen the wisdom of carrying clothes to fit the plus size woman. Whether the chain is an expensive place or one that caters to the younger crowd, you can now find all kinds of maternity items, including underwear.

Of course, going online and searching for plus size maternity clothes will give you an incredibly large selection of places to shop. Here you will find local chains as mentioned in the earlier paragraph and also any number of online and/or catalog outlets. Some of these sites you will recognize because they sell plus size clothing all the time and some are speciality shops dealing specifically with maternity clothes for plus size women.

You can also wear some of the trendy styes that are not maternity wear for a while into your pregnancy. There are all kinds of slacks that have elastic waists or drawstring waists that allow the person wearing them a great deal of lea-way in expanding their waistline. Big shirts are designed to cover a person’s mid-section and can then be worn a few months into your pregnancy, depending on how quickly you expand!

Whatever you do don’t forget to be sure your undergarments are fitting and fitting comfortably. You certainly don’t want to hurt yourself by squeezing into garments that are too small for you. Night clothes can be simply addressed by wearing the tops (and the bottoms, if you wish) of the man in your life. These pajama tops are often very comfortable and handy for wearing around the house when you don’t wish to dirty your maternity tops – like when you are cleaning or doing work on the baby’s room.

 It really depends on the age of the child, if they are smaller, you can always find tops that fit buy going into a larger size then they would normally wear at that age. But the real problem usually comes in when trying to find pants. Stick to bike short, pants with elastic waists, Capri pants or stretchy material. Otherwise you may have to buy a larger size and hem the pants, my daughter is short and I always have to hem the pants when she was younger. Once she became a teenager it was easier, because I started shopping in the petite section. Don’t let that name fool you it is a normal cut but fits a shorter person much better, petite does not have to mean they are a size 2, it can be any size but it has a petite fit, to give a more tailored fit.

You can also search the Internet for large girls sizes, Walmart is starting to carry kids plus size clothes. Sometimes it is just trial and error, see what works and don’t be afraid to try going a size up. The tops that are carried in the junior section are a shorter smaller cut and can be put on a smaller child. But if your child is coming out of kids and then you try to go to juniors you may be very disappointed because, junior are such a small cut. Sometimes you just have to skip junior and just go ahead and move onto the women’s petites.

Choose wisely, help your child look the best they can for the shape they have. If they are larger on top then the bottom then give them light colored bottoms with dark top. If they are larger on the bottom then the top then do vice versa, light colored tops with dark bottoms.