Cost of a manbag

Women have long been chastised for carrying everything but the kitchen sink in their handbags, but in 2011, it appears that men are quickly closing the gap.

New research commissioned by Direct Line has found that the average butch-bag contains items worth £104.80, only £4.28 less than the items in the average handbag. He-holdalls in Northern Ireland contain the most expensive items (£147.27 on average) followed by the bags of Yorkshire and Humberside (£130.09 on average). In comparison, in Wales they contain the least expensive items (£63.42 on average). London manbags are slightly more extravagant than the average, containing £115.60 worth of items, but are still less than the sir-satchels of those in Yorkshire and Humberside.

While more traditional essentials such as pens/notebook (51 per cent), keys (42 per cent) and wallets (40 per cent) top the list of items carried by men, the rise of the metrosexual is certainly evident. Aftershave is now carried by 5.1 million men (21 per cent) in their manbag and 1.2 million (five per cent) claim they carry hair styling products or a mirror. Just over 482,000 men (two per cent) even admit to carrying cosmetics.

Despite the valuable items lads'-luggage tend to contain, only five per cent (1.2 million) have some or all of their bag's contents covered by insurance.

Stuart Curson, head of Direct Line Home Insurance, said: "Whilst the average manbag may only cost just over £30, the pieces inside are often worth more than three times this amount. As an increasing number of gadgets are taken out of the home, the need to protect our personal possessions becomes increasingly important.

"It can be an onerous and expensive process replacing big ticket items such as mobile phones when bags get stolen or lost and you are not covered by an insurance policy, but adding these highly valuable items to a policy is often a very simple task. For many men, such items will be covered by their home contents insurance so we recommend they look at, and update, their policies as soon as possible."

Personal possessions cover is available to add to a Direct Line home insurance policy but is already included in Direct Line's home insurance plus policy. Limits do apply.

Direct Line reveals the most popular items kept in a manbag

Mobile phones top the list (33 per cent) of gadgets carried in the manbag

Followed by an iPod/ other music player (22 per cent)

4.6 million men (19 per cent) admitting they carry an umbrella

1.9 million (eight per cent) regularly carry their passport, for impromptu jet-setting,

Laptops and tablets also proved popular with 1.9 million men (eight per cent)

1.2 million (five per cent) carry a gaming device such as Nintendo DS

Just under 965,000 (four per cent) carry a spare pair of underwear