The Five Best Luggage on a Budget

After being charged an enormous fee both ways for his checked bags, the spouse came home from the business trip and weighed his then empty bags. He learned that his empty bag weight allowed for 10 pounds only of clothes + shoes for a week-long business trip. After research and some careful outlet shopping, he gained 30+ pounds of packing weight in roomier luggage from a luggage outlet store.
When shopping, consider cubic packing space, empty weight of the bag itself and current airline weight and dimensional restrictions. For price, check outlets and online. Brand? Some of the brands we grew up with are the very bags allowing you only 10 pounds of packing weight for clothes and shoes. You want replaceable inline skate wheels for durability and easy repair. At least the minimum of ballistic nylon exteriors for durability. Color/ pattern should be the ugliest you can find to stand out on a busy day at the airport. Adding clashing color straps, luggage tags, ribbon or glitter to those new bags helps even more. You want memorable bags for easy grabbing post-flight.
Buy a luggage scale and weigh your packed bag before leaving the house. Take that number and check the airlines you normally fly or might need to fly. Tuck the scale into your bag for checking before your return trip. Your bag should already be the correct external dimensions, but check anyway.
All this careful shopping, packing and weighing means you save money from overweight bags at the gates later.