Practical, black work totes under $250

I am always running to get to work in the morning and carrying an excessive number of things. I bring a Laptop, iPad, packed lunch, and umbrella to work nearly every day so you can see how my tote would fill up really quickly. Given I'm always running and carrying a bunch of stuff I also tend to destroy totes within about six months. Needless to say, I hate spending too much money on work totes. At the same time, I wear it everyday so I want it to be cute! It's surprisingly hard to find cute, large and practical totes, especially when you are hoping to spend under $250. Here are some totes I've found in my never ending search for the perfect work bag.

1.  Light and simple - This is a great bag by Carlos Falchi. It has a fair amount of space to store your work gear and is surprisingly light. It's $170.

2. Perforated trend -  Just found this bag on Neiman Marcus Last Call so it may not be on there for long. I like that this bag is just slightly trendy without losing its practicality. Also, its currently on sale for 30% off, but NM Last Call changes its sales every few days. If you don't see if on sale, add it to your bag and check every couple of days to see when it goes on 30% or 25% off again. It's currently $245.

3. The classic tote - I've used this bag for MANY years. It's very light and has the most space for stuff of any bag I've tried. I also love that it has both black and brown on it because for OCD matching people like me, it always irks me wearing a black tote with brown shoes, but I hate switching work bags too often. It's $145.

4. Roomy tote - This is my current tote. This picture doesn't do it justice. Check out the MZ Wallace website -- they have this tote in a bunch of different sizes and styles. Its really light, which I appreciate given all I'm normally carrying and came with tons of pouches to organize your stuff inside the bag. I use them for my makeup, but they can be easily removed. Only problem with this bag is that its getting more popular in New York. I seem to see someone everyday on the subway to work with this tote. UES problems. It's $225.

5. Not quite black - This tote has a fun, shimmery off-black color that would match with a ton of different colors.  It's currently on sale at Bloomingdales for $208.