Pre-menopausal. I have extra stuff at work, and carry something with me if I need it (i.e. jacket pocket), but in general, if it’s a surprise!!! :eek:, I just use some folded toilet paper until I can get somewhere where I can get a tampon.
No way. I have my wallet, keys, and other little items, like lipstick, lip balm, cellphone, etc. I can’t imagine going out without my purse. I’d feel like something was missing.
I hate purses. Closest I’ll carry is some sort of messenger bag, but I can’t even get the hang of those despite the fact that I love buying them. I just feel weird if I don’t have my important stuff (keys, wallet, phone) on my person at all times.
I don’t wear girl clothes for that very reason. If a pair of pants doesn’t have enough pocket space for me to carry my minimum amount of stuff (see above) I don’t buy them.
I’m pre-menopausal but I have never gotten a surprise period in my life. Aunt Flo calls 3 days ahead 
When I do need to carry supplies I like those little Tampax compact ones that fit in my pocket.
I hate purses and avoid them if all possible. If I need to travel light, I’ll fill my pockets, and if I need carry a lot of things, I’ll take a backpack.
Ditto all this.
I buy work jackets with pockets. I buy sport jackets with zippered pockets. I also buy thin colorful vests to wear either to work or to sports. The sports ones have zippered pocket. I can carry what’s necessary without a purse.
I also have a soft silicone cover for my phone. I can slip a couple of cards in there.
If I’m not wearing a jacket and need to be purse free (like when I’m skating or riding) I just stick my phone with a couple of necessary cards in it, into my bra. It was fine with the iphone 4, the 5 is more inconventient. It’s going to be a long time before I buy a 6 (it won’t fit into anything but a purse, it’s too big even for my pockets)
And then there are the women who carry a purse even at home.
Sophia from the Golden Girls.
Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mum greeting Jimmy Carter.
Until the cellphone entered my life, I almost never carried a purse. Wallet and keys, and I was off. As soon as I started carrying the phone, then I got a bag. Bag = more space, so suddenly I’m carrying pens and kleenex and aspirin and who knows what else.
I occasionally rebel, and go back to wallet and keys. But I do miss the days when my wallet had cash, a bank card, and ID and a credit card. And my key chain had 2 keys on it ( and not the honking big car keys of today).
Let’s start with my terminology:
Purse = female version of a wallet. Holds money, credit cards, old receipts, stamps.
Handbag = bag that holds all sorts of amazing, wondrous and terrible stuff including the purse.
(I have a feeling you 'Merkins say purse for handbag and pocketbook for purse, or something along those lines).
So… when I had babies, I needed to carry a nappy bag everywhere with all the baby paraphernalia that you simply MUST have nearby at all times, so I started keeping my purse in the nappy bag. Once the nappy bag fell from prominence as the children grew older, I switched to carrying only the purse and i haven’t used a handbag in a long time. For a while I was just carrying my cards and cash in my pocket and leaving the purse at home too, but I stopped for several reasons: 1) you can be fined for driving without carrying your licence and somehow I could never be bothered prying it out of the window pocket that it had melded to. 2) when I lost some weight, my card fell out of my pocket a couple of times, including once when I was getting into my car and if a kind stranger hadn’t handed it in at the bank, I would have been very inconvenienced. Although I have carried a handbag since my teen years, I have now unexpectedly given it up and am treating my purse like a clutch.
In my version of American your “purse” is a wallet or billfold. “Handbag” and “purse” are interchangeable for what you call “hangbag”.
Handbag, purse and pocketbook are all interchangeable for what she calls a handbag, although the last is kind of an older lady term. 
I haven’t worn trousers in 25 years, maybe? Not that I go out bare-arsed to the wind 
- I just prefer skirts & dresses. That said, I’ve usually got a jacket or a dress with decent pockets.
On the other hand, I carry a briefcase back and forth to uni, so I guess that takes the place of a purse.
Speaking of interchangeable terms, the idea of pockets on ladies’ pants makes me giggle.
Whither I goest, so goeth my pocketbook. Otherwise I feel incomplete, naked. I like big ones and used to wear shoulder bags that sometimes looked like saddlebags, I guess. Now I hand-carry a tapestry one with a braided leather cord, wide enough to slip my handicap placard into and deep enough to hold a book. (And used to, a skein of yarn.) Besides the usual, I have a small notebook and a couple pens, a zippered purse (?) with crackers, cough drops and S&P packs in it, and a measuring tape in case we pass a yard sale so I can see what would fit where. I take it even if we’re just riding up to the Redbox. And whenever we actually go somewhere it ends up stuffed with a half-drunk bottled coke and pamphlets and whatever my husband asks me to “hold.”
Peri-menopausal. I get a short visit from “aunt flo” about every 11 months and know when it’s coming because the PMS is terrible.
Ditto.
I hardly ever carry a purse or wear a coat. Unfortunately, that leads to other customers asking me if I can help them…
Back in my partying days, pre-cel-phone, I never took a purse to the bar. I always wore something with pockets that held my housekey, money, gum, lipgloss, ID and money. Then when cel phones came out I carried a small cross-body purse to hold the phone too, and now that I have an iPhone I carry a bigger cross-body purse when I go out but still with just those essentials in it. But I don’t go out partying anymore. On a daily basis I have a medium-sized purse with a long strap so it can be hands-free and I will lock it in the trunk if I’m going to the dog park or a house party, but otherwise it just stays on me.
If I’m just going out to the grocery or to grab some food, I usually just shove a credit card, ID and/or cash in my pocket and go without a purse. If I don’t have pockets, I’ll take a wristlet and my phone.
Other than that, my purse serves two primary functions:
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It’s a home for things when I’m not using them. I put my keys and wallet either in my purse or on the corner of the end table every day. Otherwise I’ll wind up spending half my time hunting them down.
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It’s also used as a lunchbox and to hold “just in case” items, meaning lip gloss (I don’t use it often, but sometimes forget my lip balm), a nail kit (I don’t have a manicure but can’t stand a snagged nail), headphones with a mic for hands-free phone calls and a few other odds and ends.
Never carried a purse until about five years ago. Started having too many fucking keys and cards and phone and sunglasses and STUFF to carry in my pockets. If I’m going with my husband and I can leave the purse behind, I will.