Are you an impulse buyer?

No I'm not referring to the toiletries product range. I am talking about buying a product or service on the impulse or spur of the moment.

Today it was a handbag worth £16 in Claire's Accessories, I had gone in for a pair of pink and black earrings and wanted to see what they had as I needed them for a breast cancer charity line dance I am attending on saturday. I found the earrings they were £4 and exactly the kind of thing i was looking for, but whilst I was in there I saw a pink and black handbag. I checked the price £16- the higher end of my budget for handbags - and picked it up and walked to the till.

Whilst queuing I had a proper look at the bag, it was nice and but I found myself thinking, 'I don't need a bag and it's a lot of money', but then the other voice in my head said, 'but it will go so well with your pink and black dress you are wearing saturday.'

Still queing I argued the pros and cons, finally I decided I couldn't afford it and I had a black handbag which would do me just fine, and I felt so very proud of myself for putting back, but stilled gave into the impulse of some cheap pink nail varnish on the till point, and now home I feel a little guilty about it.

Shops are well aware of the impulses a customer have to buy things on the till, thats why most supermarkets have sweets, cd's, magazines and dvd's available on the till to buy. It's a clever marketing ploy, you don't normally have enough time to really think about your purchase you just 'do it' and before you know it your £20 shopping bill becomes £25 pounds. Sometimes you justify the purchase to yourself with excuses or if you're like me you just pay for the luxury separately on your credit card and feel guilty afterwards.

It's not just purchasing of products that can be done on an impulse, how many times have we said something or done something on the spur of the moment sometimes with a detrimental effect on someone else. We mean what we say, but we don't mean what we say, the way we say it.

I haven't worked on my novel today, I have been neglecting other things that needed doing so have been catching up on these, but it hasn't stopped me thinking today about it. I was wondering about my novel's protaganist Margaret and what sort of things she would do on an impulse or on the spur of the moment. I know that she will have to make some major decisions later on which may also be based on an impulse, she will consider doing things that aren't necessarily good and will be based on the voices in her head, but it is what you do with the voices in your head which count.

After all we are merely extensions of the voices in our heads.