Now, I know I have a reputation as a bit of a shopper. Friends have been known to remark that "all my money goes on handbags." Well, I've discovered that it's not that my money goes on handbags, it goes in handbags.

I went for a long run this afternoon, and then came home absolutely wired with endorphins and decided it was time for not only a good houseclean (to be fair, my house is usually clean-the joy I get from this is genetic, inherited from my mother) but an organise-and-throw-away, too. There's nothing like filling up a garbage bag with crap you don't need anymore, and hauling it out to the dumpster. To spread the blame, this particular personality quirk is inherited from my father, who takes great delight in going to the dump...more than any reasonable person should. Part of this exercise involved going through the four or five handbags that I tend to have in steady rotation, to throw away receipts, put lipsticks, etc, back in my make-up drawer...generally restore order to my universe.

Going through my handbags was like a very fun version of turning over the sofa cushions to find spare change. I found a tenner, a few fivers, umpteen pound coins, 50 pence coins, and a veritable mint of smaller change.

It added up to about 42 pounds.

And this was only in the five or so bags I've used in the past few weeks! Imagine if I went big-scale with this organise-and-throw away operation! If you multiply this by the number of bags I actually have...well, I'll be rich I tell you, rich!

Next up will be consolidating the balances of all the Starbucks cards I start in the intention of keeping my weekly coffee budget in check, and then promptly lose in the bowels of one of the aforementioned handbags...I'll probably have free decaf soy lattes for the rest of the year.