'an a** or an elbow'

My daughter was complaining about something last evening, and I said to her, "You know, you're never without an a** or an elbow."
Once I had said it, I realized my own mother used to say that to me some years ago when I was growing up in Ireland. Is it/ was it a popoular saying meaning to complain a lot?

I'm much more familiar with a different version, with a different meanining "you don't know your a** from your elbow", meaning that you're useless in certain respects. I've never heard the Irish version in th UK.