We got a bad feeling about this story in the Baltimore Sun on Tuesday. We don’t generally freak out much about crime, but having planned to walk over a large swath of North Baltimore that night, and seeing that the mayor was out doing photo ops for National Night Out… it all just made us a little more wary than usual.

To tell the truth it made us wary enough to open up our wallet and take out all but about $40 in cash and 1 credit card before we left the house. After all, if there’s an emergency that requires more than one card or ATM stop you’re in just as much trouble as if you had been robbed.

But it got us thinking about wallets, and the lightness and utility of them. We’ve been carrying a very nice leather bi-fold wallet for a few years now, and while we do take pains to keep it slim we’ve got to admit that it’s more than we strictly need. We’ve already made the permanent switch from hip pocket to front pocket carrying, and our spending habits have changed as well. These days nearly everything goes on our Amex, and cash is strictly reserved for cover charges and small purchases. We barely hit the ATM once a month, if that.

And the sticky, sweaty month of August is the perfect time for a pocket diet. Less and smaller clothing means less and smaller pockets, so a minimalist wallet makes perfect sense. This weekend we’re thinking pretty hard about heading down to one of our favorite shops for men, Johnston and Murphy and picking up one of the following. (Click on each to go to the product page.)