During a little detour after lunch today, something pink and something white smiled at me from the window of a shop. Before I knew it, I was at the cash counter and happily handing out my credit card. And guess what I bought! A beautiful pair of ski clothes. I walk back to work, still dreaming of the lovely white slopes, when some inconsiderate soul reminds me that it is only October. And another lets me know that I have no vacation - let alone a ski vacation - planned for a long time. And then a stranger that I meet on the lift is curious about where I am going to ski. Well, I don’t know. And I also don’t know IF I will be skiing this year. NOW listen to the clincher, I don’t know how to ski!!

But people, haven’t you ever heard of love at first sight? Haven’t you ever had a dream? Haven’t you ever come across something too good to be true? Or something that you absolutely must have? Its no surprise to me that the three otherwise-wonderful people who did not quite understand these concepts seemed to be of the male species. Anyways, this post is not about male-female differences in shopping, although that could be an interesting topic for discussion some other time. For now, I am just in a mood to talk about my shopping-categories.

First in the list is love-at-first-sight buys, aka impulse buys. You see it and you have to have it. You just know that if say, a shoe, could be your soul mate, this is the one. You are made for each other. And indeed love is blind, especially if his name is Manolo Blahnik. I may fall out of love later and it may turn out to be a rather blisterful relationship, but the momentary ecstasy could arguably be worth the bread and water I survive on till my next paycheck arrives. Ah! the sacrifices one makes for true love.

Then there are the aspirational buys, things you buy because it represents a dream to you. I want to finally learn skiing this winter and I really hope I will. But for now, its as much planned as my trip to Mars. Except that I don’t have a space suit, but I have my ski clothes. Thats aspirational buying. Although there are times when I wish that I am just a tad bit realistic in my aspirations. Like the time I bought a suit of the exact same design as the one worn by Charlize Theron in Italian Job. Its a lovely suit, and I would love to wear it to work. But the eternal optimist that I am, I bought it with a 24 inch waist. It was a 2003 movie and we will soon be in 2006 and I still cant get into the pants. But the hope remains.

Then there are the too-good-to-be-missed buys, which IMHO are the most dangerous. Thats when that Hermes bag you had always noticed on the shop window and smugly told yourself that rich people have no taste and thats why that ugly bag could hope to get sold for a 1000€, is now suddenly available for a mere 200. Don’t you think it is an awful sin to buyers all over, if one lets go of a 80% markdown? And then you realise that Hermes or no Hermes, you don’t even want to be caught dead in it. Or when you buy an 8-in-1, which is a coffeemaker and an a alarm and a breakfast maker and a radio (and I can’t remember the rest) all rolled into one, even though you have all of them at home as separate perfectly functioning entities. When such a marvel of design and innovation is available for a mere 59.99, its definitely too good to be missed. That is, until it becomes a 3-in-1 after a mere 63 hours. Or when you buy the 1€ T-shirt, thinking you can wear it to bed and then you remain paranoid why it was available for a € - has it been already worn by someone and if so, what do you think think they did while they were wearing it? Well, these buys are usually useless and an absolute waste of money, but many of my too-good-to-be-missed buys have made me a legend in our family book of horrible humor.

Then of course there is the category of this-is-how-you-do-it buys. That is when you recognise your need for an object, you analyse the benefits that you have out of buying it vis-a-vis its cost and make an informed decision on whether you should buy it or not. And if the decision is to buy it, you research about it and buy it at the shop that gives you the best deal. I only have hearsay about this, and despite strong rumours that such buys actually do happen in this world, I remain a skeptic about the existence of such a category.

And lastly, there is the necessity buys category - despite what you might have gathered about my shopping habits so far, most of my buys actually belong to this category. And they happen when I realise that all my half decent suits are at the dry cleaners and I have to make a career-making presentation tomorrow. Or I have a job interview the day after and I realise that the only shoes that match my good luck shirt had a broken heel the last week. Or when it dawns on me that there is such a thing as laundry that one needs to be done regularly and now I have a choice of wearing a stinking used shirt the next day or be benevolent and contribute to the ailing economy - as a responsible citizen, there is obviously only one right decision.