I used Page Plus for a while and was pretty happy with it (they use Verizon towers, but are generally cheaper than Verizon). You can bring your old Verizon phones as long as you're out of contract.
I recently switched to Tracfone. For my usage, Tracfone ended up being even cheaper than Page Plus. As long as you use a CDMA phone on Tracfone, it will use the Verizon towers. They have all kinds of weird deals that make it a little difficult to figure out (a triple minutes/data/text offer that's available on some plans/phones and not others, plus they offer plans for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 1 year, etc., so you have to remember to divide cost and what's offered by # of days). I found the website Tracfone Reviewer really helpful in figuring out what made the most sense for me. I ended up buying a new Galaxy Sky, bundled with 1.3 GB, 1300 min., and 1300 texts, and one year of service time. As soon as you run out of either service time or min/gb/texts, you just buy a new amount, whatever you need. I paid $120 for the whole bundle (phone and plan) on QVC, and I still haven't used up everything (so for my usage that $120 got me at least 5 months of usage and a decent phone). Once I use up the bundle, I'll start buying their 60-day smart phone plan that costs $23.75 on auto-refill (so $11.88/month).
For you, since you use .3-.5 GB per month, check out the Tracfone smartphone plan that is $45 for 90 service Days and 1.5 GB of data, 750 min and 1,000 texts. In monthly terms, that's $15/month for .5 GB, 250 min, and 333 texts.
For your wife, you could do the same plan, and add on two additional $10 data cards to get 2.5GB per month, 250 min, 333 texts for a total of $35. That would be $50/month to cover both of you at your existing data usage, with the same Verizon tower coverage you're getting. Tracfone does allow you to BYOD as long as it's paid off and out of contract, so when your Verizon contract expires you can probably just bring your current phones (the Tracfone Reviewer site has a lot more info on how to do that).
Before trying Page Plus and Tracfone, I also tried Republic Wireless (at the MMM recommendation) - unfortunately the Sprint coverage in our rural area is terrible, so it didn't work well for me.