Many men are baffled by the sheer volume and range of belongings their better halves cart around in handbags. But Adam Potter has weightier questions on his mind.

Questions such as: When will fiance Rebecca Embleton's fixation with bags finally end? And will it stop before her collection completely takes over their two-bedroom terraced home?

Rebecca, 20, has bought a handbag every month for the last five years and, despite shelling out more than £1,000 and a creating a serious space problem, shows no signs of letting up.

They are crammed into cupboards, on top of chests of drawers, on coat racks, in the loft and in a spare bedroom.

Adam, a 23-year-old printer, said: "It's bizarre really. The collection goes from quite basic, normal handbags to the ridiculous. I've just given up trying to put her off buying them."

Rebecca said: "He thinks I'm mad. I've asked him how many he reckons I've got and he thinks its only 10 or 15 - but I've got about 60.

"I'll have one for work and one for going out. I think about my handbags when I'm deciding what colour to have my hair.

"It's not an addiction - well it is an addiction, in the sense that I like to change my handbag every day."

Rebecca, of Alberta Road, Durrington, has been collecting handbags since she was 14 - when she started her first job, a paper round, and could afford them.

She said: "I went to Spain when I was 15 with my parents and saw Spanish people walking round with this bag and I thought, 'I've got to have that'.

"It was a backpack in the shape of a tube of purple paint. We hunted all round Spain for this bag and eventually found it on the last day of the holiday.

"I don't remember how many pesetas it was but I'd spent all my money and I begged my mum to buy it for me and eventually she crumbled. Because our suitcases were so full of clothes I had to leave some of them in Spain to bring back this bag."

Rebecca, a customer service assistant, has bags by Fiorelli, Suzy Smith and Kickers among others. There are three in cow print, some with magnets, others with buttons, tassles and drawstrings and one based on the head of Ermintrude, the cow from the Magic Roundabout.

She said: "My most unusual one is probably my corset. I got it from a department store in Worthing and it's very Jean Paul Gaultier. It's a lacy, ruffly corset-type shape with ribbons across the front.

"The woman in the shop told me it was a wash bag but I wouldn't be seen taking it to the bathroom with my shampoo. You'd ruin it, and I've been told it might be a collectors' item."

Rebecca says she dreams of owning a £300 Gucci handbag, but adds: "If I saved all my money and didn't buy one once a month I'd be able to afford it - but I can't imagine a month going by without buying a new handbag.

"I want to be buried with my favourite ones.

"Adam is not impressed that I spend money every month on handbags, but it's better than spending it on sex, drugs and rock-and-roll.

"We've got a big mortgage, but we don't go out drinking and clubbing every weekend, so it's my little luxury."