• A prepaid phone.  I don’t spend much time chatting it up, so I don’t have a need for a monthly plan.  I send a few texts each month, and my phone can handle that.  In the last year, I’ve paid close to $8 per month for cell phone service.
• An iPod Touch.  I needed an mp3 player for a road trip so I sprung for the Touch.  Now I have apps and emails and pretty badass mobile browsing.  And there are no monthly fees associated with its WiFi.
• Skype … with my mom.  I set her up and now we video chat to keep in touch.  I also have the Skype app on my iPod Touch, but I tend to only use it on my laptop.
• A land line … which I may ditch.  I’m looking into dropping my land line.  Skype has $3 per month calling to the US.  You just have to make the calls from your computer.  But since I have the land line, I use…
• Google Voice for all long distance calls.  And it transcribes my voicemail very entertainingly.  And it rings my office, home, and cell phone when people call.  It’s great.

All this seems like a lot of work, but it just isn’t.  It’s like Facebook and IM and email — I use different communication mediums to communicate with different groups of people.  BUT if Boost Mobile offers a prepaid Google Android phone, I’ll be the first to buy it.  And as Google Voice grows and allows VoIP calls, I’ll have less use for Skype and my land line.

So the cheapest iPhone ever is: iPod Touch + prepaid phone + Skype and Google Voice.  Which just leaves the camera.  Luckily, I married a photographer.