Just so you know, all carriers have email address gateways for their phones.
For example, if you send an email with a picture attachment to
[email protected], it will be received as a picture message.
For Verizon, it is
[email protected]
That is actually the best way to send a picture message to someone overseas because you don't get charged. Here is a complete list:
http://www.hiptools.net/sms/
Verizon doesn't give any text messages with their data plans. On the iphone plans, you can increase your text message bucket to 1500 messages for an extra $10 per month and to unlimited messages for an extra $20 per month.
I'm not sure when you make most of your calls, but I faced this same exact issue when I changed to Cingular a couple of years ago. Most people in the NYC area still use Verizon and most of my friends and family are still on Verizon.
However......I don't use my phone much at all when I'm at work, and I don't get off from work until 6pm at earliest. Cingular offers 7pm nights for an extra $9/month. They also offer rollover minutes with all of their plans. I find that most of my use of "anytime minutes" was between 7pm and 9pm. So now with that added to their minimum $40 voice plan, I only use around 200 anytime minutes per month. And I talk on the phone A LOT. Still, I have accumulated about 3800 rollover minutes, so if I want to go crazy one month and talk all day long, it won't cost me a dime.
And I also don't have a landline anymore. I got rid of mine about 3 years ago.