Time to ditch the cel phone?

I would like to get rid of my cel phone. More specifically, I would like to get rid of my cel phone bill. Between my wife and I, our cel phone’s cost us more money per month than our hydro or gas bill. Our plans aren’t extravagant because we pay about $30/mo for voice each and $30/mo for data each. Once I add in some taxes, the completely BS “system access” fee, and call display, we’re chucking away a good stash of coin.

I’ve already canceled all of our “extras” and this will save $20/month. It’s hard to trim much else down. If I could do it, I’d ditch the voice plan and only have the data plan. This isn’t possible and so I’m left with three options. 1. Keep things as is. 2. Cancel my phone, and get a telus prepaid for $100/year, for emergencies only 3. Switch to Fido, pay $15/mo for an anemic voice plan and another $15/mo for bb email only.

The problem with #2 is that it is a guarantee of inconvenience. The concept is to keep a cel phone for emergencies and this seems to make sense. However, because of the rate and projected amount of use, I would be essentially resigning myself to carrying a phone around all the time but never using it. Who wants to pack an electronic device every day but only use it a couple of times a month?

I think I’ll do option #3. Both my wife and I have the $30 for 6gb per month data plan, but we never go over 200mb. I might as well trim mine right down and save the $15. The Fido voice plan is really skimpy but it will save quite a bit because not only is it cheaper, it also does not charge the system access fee.