Yeah, cell phones are freak'in expensive. They are heavily subsidized by the cell phone providers, to compete for customer contracts. Places where there are telephone monopolies (e.g. Costa Rica) they are not subsidized (I had to pay $150 for a Motorola V60c TDMA).
If your contract minimum committment has expired, best bet is to cancel your service and buy a new phone with plan.
Otherwise, go to Amazon.com and search for "Motorola unlocked" or "Nokia unlocked" to find phones without service plans.