A bag is for life, not just for Christmas.

I received this Emma Bridgwater shopping bag (available here), from my grandparents for Christmas and had really enjoyed having it in my trolley at the supermarket and on my shoulder as I walked with Torin down to the greengrocers at the end of our road. I love the old fashioned look of the jute, as well as the fact it has a waxed inside for added durability.

Image from here.

I used it to carry groceries home from the supermarket at the weekend, and as I was rushing (as usual!) in the rain, to get Torin and the shopping into the house, the bag fell off my shoulder and banged onto the tiled floor in our hallway. This would have been fine had I not been using it to carry two bottles of red wine! I soon noticed a river of red seeping out from underneath the bag. A frenzy then ensued - I lifted Torin over the wine torrent, lifted all of the other shopping out of the hallway, ran to the kitchen to grab the kitchen roll, and then began mopping!

Unfortunately, the bag was ruined - full of red wine and broken glass. Even if I had miraculously been able to get the stain out, there was just no way that I would have been able to guarantee removal of all of the glass. Such a shame, though I will enjoy having a good look around for a replacement!

On Emma Bridgwater's website, it says, "Plastic bags are a thing of the past. Use our new Old Bag for all your shopping." I think this is slowly becoming true. With so many shops charging for plastic bags, and some countries like Italy and Kenya even banning them, hopefully plastic bags will soon indeed become a thing of the past. 

I try to take reusable bags with me whenever I go shopping and get so annoyed with myself when I'm at the checkout and realise that I've left my "bags for life" at home, or more likely, in the car! That's not to say that I don't still end up with a pile of plastic bags in my house. I keep shopping bags in a straw basket in our hallway, and there are usually at least 10 of the horrible things in there among the "bags for life" and material shopping bags. I just make sure that I do a regular clear out - most big supermarkets have a recycling bin for old plastic bags near the entrance, so I take them there.

What about you - what do you use to carry your groceries? Do you have any suggestions of bags that could replace my ruined one?