I used to carry a wallet, until I developed a nasty habit of taking it out to pay for gas at the pump, setting it on top of my car, and leaving it there when I drove off. Now I carry a metal lunchbox. Haven’t lost it yet. The spare change can get a bit noisy, though.
I have a big ol’ mom type purse, full of typical schmutz that I probably won’t use everyday but would hate to need and not have with me, along with the requisite book. I use a bi-fold wallet for all the important stuff, plastic, cash, ID and such.
Typically, I leave my purse at my workstation that I’ll go to and from all day long, and carry my wallet in one pocket, cellphone in the other. Same for going out, the purse has all the makeup and hair stuff for the last minute fixes upon arrival, but I’ll lock it up in the vehicle and carry just the wallet around all night.
For you wallet only girls, you never need an aspirin? Makeup or hand lotion? Personal hygeine products? Planner? If I didn’t have access to my calendar handy, I’d be forever forgetting committments and cross-scheduling stuff.
I carry a purse only when I’m traveling, it’s so much easier to run a purse through the airport x-ray machine than to empty all of my pockets.
When I’m not traveling, it sit’s in my truck, which is almost always wherever I am. So, basically, my truck is my purse.
I carry a wallet all the time with my ID and various cards. Generally cash goes in my pockets. I usually wear jeans, and most are loose enough that my cell can go in a pocket as well, as long as I’m standing, when I sit down I must take it out.
There’s a law in NM that I must carry my Alcohol Certification on my body anytime I’m tending bar. I’ve never seen it enforced, but I keep it in my wallet anyway, since it’s a $1,000 fine if someone should decide to enforce the law. With my luck, they’d make the example of me.
My current wallet was actually an insert in a purse. It’s two pieces, sewn together on 2 sides. Each side has 2 credit card slots, and you can put cards in between. Even when it’s loaded with reciepts and such it’s only about 1/4 of an inch thick, so it can easiy go in a front or back pocket.
I much prefer the wallet to the purse, like others who have posted above, I tend to leave the purse behind.
~S
I don’t know about this wallet thing- I carry around 17 tubes of lipstick, feminine products, makeup, checkbook, etc. etc. so a wallet wouldn’t work for me.
I am glad, however, that this thread so far contains no advocates of fanny-packs. Unless I missed it. Fanny-packs are SO stupid looking, I HATE THEM.
I carry a wallet, keys and lipgloss. The current wallet I bought a couple years ago and it has a chain on it I can take off if I like.
I have found a purse I love though, it’s big enough I can stick a few things in and darn near anything I would need without carrying a backpack, without being bulky.
That’s my main problem… bulky purses. I also don’t mind the strap between my breasts, because if it’s on one shoulder it always slips off and if it’s shorter than that I will not buy it. I like my hands free.
I’ll admit that sometimes I do like a fanny pack, but it’s rare when I carry it. Usually if I am biking somewhere and don’t want a backpack.
I, sort of, carry only a wallet. I use a big tote to and from work but only carry my wallet for shopping or whatever. So most of my crud stays in the tote in the car and my wallet is like a clutch.
Especially in summer, a billfold would drag on my clothes and most of my pants have either no pockets or the pockets sewn shut anyway.
Wallet. Cell phone. Keys. Nothing more, unless I need to go full-out backpack. It’s very nice. And if I do need to carry a little more, my boyfriend is so attached to carrying his backpack around that I have a hard time getting him to leave it behind when we go grocery shopping. (What he thinks he might need from it while we’re in the store, I’ll never know…) Now HE needs a purse.
I hate carrying a purse, but I don’t know how to do without. Most of my clothes don’t have pockets, and those that do couldn’t handle much beyond my car keys.
These are the current contents of my purse. I’ll bold things that get used frequently:
Nail clipper and emery boards
Rubbing alcohol pads I swiped from somewhere
Calculator
Pens
Chapstick, concealer
A bill
A pocket calendar
Old pay stub
Receipts for last time car was serviced
Wallet
Plastic ID badge on lanyard for work
Some blank labels
Keys
Granola bar
Two packets of cocoa
Brush
Cell phone
Mirror
A big honking bag of feminine products
Clear nail polish to stop runs in pantyhose
Hotel sewing kit
Pillbox
Comb
Tiny scissors
Boxcutter (?)
Grocery coupons in expanding file
Address book
Copy of tax return (?)
Bottle of PMS pills
And I actually cleaned out lots of odds and ends while making that list!
Guy checking in.
Between bicycle commuting, work, and school, I’ve become accustomed to having a backpack or softsided laptop carrier around, and I often refer to whichever one I have with me as my purse.
I’ve always wanted to own a sporran.
As for women’s not carrying purses, I find it attractive, interestingly enough. Something about carrying around a big bulky bag (or even a tiny one) just bothers me aesthetically. But hey, the world doesn’t revolve around my aesthetic sensibilities, and I don’t expect that to change in the near future.
But, do you have a Tape Measure?
“Let’s Make a Deal!” 
Maybe in the car. 
Aspirin: Rarely.
Makeup or hand lotion: I’m allergic.
Personal hygiene products: I’m on Depo.
Planner: I have no plans.
I’ve mostly given up on even a wallet recently. I found some pants and shorts that have a zipper on one of the pockets; so id, 1 credit card and a debit card go in the zipper pocket. Money (usually very little) goes in one of the other pockets and fem gear into a third pocket when necessary. Mr. Pict just went out and bought a couple of pair of shorts with the handy zipper pocket as well after he saw how light I am now able to travel.
Then again I have always been a pocket kind of chic. And it might be genetic; when my daughter was in grammar school her teacher made the comment that she had “boy pockets” because she just shoved everything in hers as well.
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).
I’m now back to big purse or stuff it in the diaper bag mode.
But before that I was very wallet-onlyish … I actually bought my current cellphone based soley on two conditions:
-
It worked with my service supplier
-
It fit in my wallet.
The wallet (which I still use) is a small zip- bag about the size of a MYNTZ tin. Fits cards, money, and that cell phone. Had a strap on it to connect via carbiner to my keys; strap came off and I carabine through the hole in the zipper pull instead.
Bought two at a dollar store and they’ve lasted me years. I’d love to get another before these wear out.
Usually, though, I’ll just tuck that and my camera in the diaper bag and I"m off.
Just any black man, or is this someone you know well?
I’ve heard that referred to as a “fag bag.”
I carry a wallet and car keys, period. I recently bought a new pair of pants for work in a big hurry, and was horrified to later realize that they have no back pockets, when I put them on for the first time and had nowhere for my wallet to go. I mean, WTF? Who makes pants without pockets?
That was the first time I’d ever bought a pair of women’s pants.
Aspirin: Never need it. Usually there’s some everywhere you go, anyway.
Makeup or hand lotion: I don’t wear makeup and everyone else carried hand lotion in their purses.
Personal hygiene: I’ve got the IUD
Planner: That’s what my computer’s for!
I take a wallet usually, because I don’t care about taking my cell phone everywhere, and I almost never drive. My wallet is enough.