That's sort of what I did with my wife's phone.  The number of minutes
depends on which plan you choose.  The calling between you & your wife
doesn't subtract from the number of minutes of your plan since your calling
another Verizon customer.  The only catch is, they'll make you extend your
contract in May for another term.  I originally had an old Verizon Startac
phone which died after a few weeks & had to order a new one & didn't have
any problem changing service to the newer phone.