What's in your handbag?

anagram - no, i'm a survivalist! apparently, what you really need with you in an emergency are a small hammer (ideally a torch with a hammer end but i have both) and a tealight, which is enough to keep you alive in dire circumstances and a foil blanket in case the matches fail to light the tealight...

TRY FEBREZE GREENMOSS IT REALLY DOES WORK WONDERS ON ALL THINGS ORGANIC ..........EXCEPT THE MALE SPECIES !!!!

granbunny - aren't you worried you might be accused of and/or charged with carrying an offensive weapon? I wonder if you'd be allowed on a plane...

Like most women who suffer from headaches, previously migraine attacks, I have Aspirin, Paracetamol and Migrileve in all my handbags. Then a couple of boiled sweets for low blood sugar, comb, keys, mobile, purse. Notebook and pencil.

All above, apart from hammer! I also carry plasters+++ as I have thin skin and am always skinning myself!
I think one of the things that attracted my dh to me was that I was the only female he knew who carried feeler gauges screwdriver and pliers with her.
Oh! I also carry iPad and emergency sewing kit!

Well, all I can say is that I hope you, jeni and granbunny never get arrested! You'll be done for 'going equipped'!

Don't carry the tools now! Just stand and look poor old helpless looking granny at a useful looking male.
I can do a really good pathetic helpless stupid look!

All my handbags for the last ten years have been bought in charity shops. Because I fly so often, I can't use a range of colours, so they are all either black or cream. I use shoulder bags which I do use as 'over the body' if I am ever in a town (which is rare).
Normally, I use a small, light backpack from Decathlon. It contains small bottle of water, camera, mobile, whistle, plasters, small binoculars, list of emergency numbers, wallet, plastic folder with all my car documents (obligatory whe driving in France), maps, tissues, coffee sweets, different tips for my walking poles to deal with different terrain and banana. I need to buy a new very lightweight rain cape.
My daughter's handbags were always full of receipts,baby wipes, sticky bits of toffee, even orange peel, but I would not have dared to clean them out. I am very organised and put my receipts, if required to be kept, into the appropriate folder as soon as I get home.

granbunny - aren't you worried you might be accused of and/or charged with carrying an offensive weapon? I wonder if you'd be allowed on a plane...
no, anagram, apparently my hammer (its the kind used for breaking car windows in an accident) and torch are perfectly ok. i had to stop carrying my screwdriver though, when they installed metal detectors at the railway station...

You can get crossbody bags in lots of colours (check out Amazon, Radley, Visconti etc) but has anybody else felt that handbags are truly silly prices these days? Because there are some idiots fashionistas who will shell out several hundred pounds fo a handbag, "ordinary" ones are rarely under £100 and I do like real leather. I could weep when I think of all the leather handbags I have got rid of in the past just because I was tired of them!

Meant to say - I alwys have at least 2 dog poo bags (nappy sacks) on me, I sometimes get a funny look if I pull one out by mistake, but it's better than the spare pairs of pants I used to carry when the DDs were little. (Honest!)

You get some wonderful bargains in charity shops, including good leather handbags, especially if the shop is in a high-income town, like Tunbridge Wells. They are not much good now for clothes, as the prices in Matalan, Primark, Aldi and Tesco are so low for new clothes, but if you want expensive designer stuff go the charity shops in your nearest up-market town.
I don't share the passion some women appear to feel for amassing shoes and handbags but then I am not interested in my appearance in general.

My handbag[s] is always heavy however little I seem to put in it. DH thinks my posture is tilted as a consequence - but that's one of the reasons I do Pilates to compensate .
Anyway I need all my stuff and even a doctor I met in the loo once with a cut finger was appreciative of my pack of plasters
I like shoulder bags because then I have both hands free. I've never had a back bag - except for a school satchel [now that WAS heavy] - and wonder if it would tempt someone to try and steal from it as I wouldn't perhaps notice or feel what was going on. Perhaps I'm just being paranoid! I can see a back bag is better for you.

Purse, keys, mob phone, painkillers, tissues, wet wipes, umbrella, chewing gum, compact & lipstick, perfume, pen, miniature whisky....

My new bag that I bought from Amazon the other day still smells AWFUL! I've washed it in bi-carb, hung it out in the strong breeze on the clothes line, etc, all to no avail. I phoned Amazon this morning to ask what I can do, (because I certainly can't use it like that) and the lovely lady there told me to return it to them, and I would get a refund. They would do a 'physical' inspection of the bag.....bet they find an old tuna sandwich in the lining or something !

green Sorry you had no luck with my suggestion ? back to the drawing board for glamma

5 sets of keys, lip balm, 4 doggy bags (the dog died last October), large wallet containing far too many plastic cards so it won't shut properly, hairbrush, lipstick (I don't wear lipstick), airline e-ticket, photos various, hand cleanser, 3 pens, packet of nurofen, mobile phone, torch (just in case) 5 squished up tissues, small packet of unsquished tissues, passport, 2 pairs of specs. ALL this in a bag 9" square. Time for a spring clean I think

bottle of water
pound coin for supermarket trolley (actually two. pound coinds, not trolleys)
lip salve
ancient Bendicks' mint chocolate
small penknife
30p loose change in a wee pocket (for the loo at Glasgow station!)
wallet containing bits of plastic, driving licence, donor card, but no money! (forgot to go to hole in wall last time in town)
coin purse with a few coins!
one of those roly uppy lightweight shopping bags
ols receipts, various, now not in handbag
wee bag in which to put roly uppy bag but which it never gets put in
manky microfibre cloth (fell out of glasses case)
sunglasses in case
spare reading glasses in case
travel toothbrush and paste and toothpicks
small map for getting to orthodontist
postage stamps first and second class (not a stash though)
another lens cleaner!!!! I never use them, just use my T-shirt!
various hairslides
nappy pin
aspirins, anti-histamines
tissues
plasters
tiny notebook
pen
hair elastic for DD
two badges from a school campaign
Ventolin inhaler

GOSH!

Most of the time I just carry a hanky, my phone, and my arthritis pills in my pockets.

You missed kitchen sink bagitha

GOSH indeed! Can you still walk carrying that lot around, bagitha? Looks like you go 'commando' most of the time, like me.

!!

How can you possibly know, Butternut?

Yes, I like to be minimal. The handbag covers real travel!

Am reducing the load by eating the chocolate right now!

Nappy pin Baggy?