# Women Who Just Carry Wallets **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986 "2004-05-19T16:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mirth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Mirth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/41 "2004-05-20T17:48:13Z")
I’m a wallet girl too. I was constantly losing my purses, and while I’m not much better with wallets, this way I lose less stuff. But mostly I just like the freedom of not dragging a ton of stuff around with me. Mine is actually more of a black leather change purse with a keychain-- definitely a woman’s as it has flowers stitched into it. On the rare occasions when I wear make-up, I can fit a tube of lipstick in there. Feminine products and keys, I just stick in my pocket. I can also fit a few individually sealed pills (like benadryl or gas station tylenol) in it if I need them, but I’m not much of a pill-taker. I usually only carry around keys, money, and cards. If I happen to need something else, I just suffer through or borrow from someone with a purse. 🙂 The only thing I really missed when I switched was my nail file, but I have found that, should I break a nail, I can smooth it out by filing it on my jeans, and then finish the job when I get home. To be completly honest though, I do find myself borrowing and/or asking a friend to stick something in her purse for me at least once a week. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/42 "2004-05-20T17:54:37Z")
If I’m wearing jeans or pants that have the right kind of pockets, I’ll just carry a wallet. I have a small wallet that just holds what I need (license, debit card, etc., no endless photos of the kids), and I recently got one of those necklace/leash thingys for my keys, so that’s all I need. I can clip my cell phone to my pants. When I do use a purse, it’s gotta be a backpack-style purse. I hate the small handbag ones that you have to carry in your hand or under your arm. It has to be able to be slung over my shoulder, and I really prefer being able to put it on backpack-style. I’m too old to use an actual backpack, so I have two nice leather ones and a casual canvas one. I don’t like big purses; I just end up carting around junk I don’t need. All I need is my wallet, cell phone, keys, a Chapsick or two, a small brush, a little thing of breath strips, and a bottle of Advil. I’m easy. ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/43 "2004-05-20T18:11:50Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > Personal hygiene: I’ve got the IUD To blow your nose and take up other excretions of Mother Nature? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/44 "2004-05-20T18:38:07Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > I don’t know what the appropriate word is (I call it a purse, naturally), but I’ve been known to carry one of those bags that was in fashion a little while ago. It has a broad strap that goes over one shoulder, and it rides more or less at your hip. I carry my various electronics in it (palm, camera, cell phone). \ It’s not a purse. It’s European. \ ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/45 "2004-05-20T18:41:20Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > To blow your nose and take up other excretions of Mother Nature? I keep Kleenex in my car, and I’ve been spayed, so I don’t need to carry around “feminine hygiene” stuff. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lynne\_kilii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lynne\_kilii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynne_kilii)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/46 "2004-05-20T19:23:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by matt\_mcl > I don’t know what the appropriate word is (I call it a purse, naturally), but I’ve been known to carry one of those bags that was in fashion a little while ago. It has a broad strap that goes over one shoulder, and it rides more or less at your hip. I carry my various electronics in it (palm, camera, cell phone). Isn’t it a messanger bag? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/47 "2004-05-20T20:10:24Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > To blow your nose and take up other excretions of Mother Nature? Tissues go in the pocket as well. Though if I’m in a truly nose-blowing state of mind, I tend not to go out. I got yelled at too often by a teacher who abhorred in-class nose-blowing. ---
**Author:** ![Cherry2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cherry2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cherry2000)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/48 "2004-05-20T21:20:52Z")
I’ve carried one of [these](http://www.eaglecreek.com/40230.html) for the past five years, and I love it! Small, but has enough room inside for a lipstick, my cell phone, credit cards, etc. Has lots of little dividers/pockets to help you keep things straight. You can wear it on the string like a small purse, or the one I have has a detachable string. They also come with a loop on the back so that you can wear it on your belt (Awesome for outdoor events, etc.). Nope, wouldn’t catch me going back to a big purse…ever! ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/49 "2004-05-20T21:47:41Z")
License, credit cards, and a handfull of other general cards I keep in a very small zippered wallet, usually in my back pocket. Anything bigger than a slim “card wallet” type of thingy (apparently designed for business cards), and I’m annoyed with sitting on a big lump. Cash is kept loose in my front pocket, along with car keys and my cell. A magazine or two, a book, my diskman, and the occasional pack of smokes and a lighter are sometimes lugged around in an old army surplus backpack, but it usually just goes back and forth from my car to my cubicle and back again. I don’t take it anywhere else, unless I’m traveling. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/50 "2004-05-20T22:53:24Z")
I have a small, flat, leather pocket attached to a leather thong type lanyard that I bought at a convention once. They were sold as being perfect to hold hotel card-keys, allowing you to leave your purse locked in your room while at a convention, but I’ve found it’s absolutely all I need 90+% of the time. Which is: driver’s license, combo ATM/Debit card, a loose blank check, a few bills, one of those ‘golf’ pencils & a couple of index cards, and a tube of lip gloss. Hang it around my neck, tucked beneath whatever top I’m wearing, and I’m good to go, with both hands free and my pockets available for phone & small bills/change. Love it. I have a friend who also wears her ‘wallet’ around her neck, in her case it’s a tooled & beaded pouch she bought on a Hopi reservation. I think it was supposed to be for magic amulets/healing stuff, but it’s lovely enough that she generally wears it outside her shirts, treating it as an ornamental necklace. ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/51 "2004-05-20T23:17:56Z")
I use the terms purse and wallet interchangeably. My handbag, on the other hand, contains my wallet/purse. Other than to hold all my stuff, there is another reason I carry a handbag: If I had to remember keys/wallet/phone/etc. separately, I’d never make it out of the house without forgetting something. I have a long strap on my handbag, so my hands are still free. Frankly, couldn’t be without it! ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/52 "2004-05-21T00:04:15Z")
No purse, just a wallet. In my back pocket usually. I am constantly p.o.‘d at how hard it is to find women’s slacks that actually _have_ back pockets. I’m a pocket-lover since childhood. I always envied my brothers’ clothes because they had so many pockets. My dad couldn’t see the necessity of pockets for girls but my dear grandmother used to sew outfits complete with pockets, just for me bless her. I was wearing a shirt just yesterday with no upper pocket and it bugged me all night at work-nowhere to put my gum wrapper! I’ve been known to have as many as fifteen pockets on me at any one time. I usually have my wallet in a back pocket, keys and change in the front. If I think I’m going to need feminine products I slip a couple in the other back pocket. Ditto with pain relievers-they fit nicely in the coin pocket on jeans. If I’m going to be out an extended length of time I through a small messenger-type bag in the car. I haven’t carried a purse since 6th grade, when some goons kept trying to annoy me by stealing it. pocketa-pocketa-pocketa I like pocketses, yes I do. 'scuse me, got a little carried away. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/53 "2004-05-21T03:29:13Z")
Forgot to mention–for those moments when I absolutely _have_ to carry more stuff than fits comfortably in pockets (Going Out, sneaking a soda into the theater, etc), I’ve got a backpack that’s a stuffed raccoon with a zipper and straps. Almost never carry it, though. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/54 "2004-05-21T03:32:46Z")
Here’s [Rocky!](http://berlinbear.com/aanda.gifs/bandit.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/55 "2004-05-21T04:57:58Z")
> [@MixieArmadillo](#): > > Here’s [Rocky!](http://berlinbear.com/aanda.gifs/bandit.jpg) Hmm… Racoon backpacks, and 666 posts. There’s something in that combination that… I dunno… Worries me. 😃 I just woke up from a nightmare about a ghost - first ghost dream I’ve ever had, by the way, so I think I might just be a little frazzled. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/56 "2004-05-21T06:33:34Z")
I have this little wallet on my key chain which is large enough to hold several IDs/credit cards/calling cards/work entry passes/other cards, cash, has a zippered thingie for change, and into which I can shove those random bits of paper one picks up during the day. It is the single most useful item I own. I have one of those valet deals on it so I can detach my wallet thing/car key from the rest of my key chain I also carry a checkbook, which has my checkbook one one side and a DayTimer Slim Horizontal Planner 2-Page-Per-Week Calendar Pages (tm, I presume) on the other, and into which I can also shove cash and those random bits of paper one picks up during the day. When on call I carry a cell phone, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/57 "2004-05-21T17:31:10Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > To blow your nose and take up other excretions of Mother Nature? Silly 😉 I don’t have periods anymore because of the IUD, and if I want to blow my nose, well, there are tissues everyone. I have a box on my desk, the secretaries always have some, there are almost always some in the bathroom, and my house has several boxes scattered about. In a pinch I can always use toilet paper. Why on earth would anyone want to carry tissue around with them everywhere? That seems like a very bulky item. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/58 "2004-05-21T17:31:27Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > To blow your nose and take up other excretions of Mother Nature? Silly 😉 I don’t have periods anymore because of the IUD, and if I want to blow my nose, well, there are tissues everywhere. I have a box on my desk, the secretaries always have some, there are almost always some in the bathroom, and my house has several boxes scattered about. In a pinch I can always use toilet paper. Why on earth would anyone want to carry tissue around with them everywhere? That seems like a very bulky item. ---
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/59 "2004-05-22T03:51:20Z")
You’re not supposed to carry around tissues everywhere, you’re supposed to carry your handkerchief, dear! ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986/60 "2004-05-22T03:54:38Z")
But it gets in the way of my parasol. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-just-carry-wallets/245986.md?page=4)