Mail crashes regularly and sometimes safari iPhone 3G

Hi, I have a 32gb 3gs, fully update to 4.2.1. In the last few days, the mail application has become almost totally unusable, and safari frequently so. With mail, its fine when I open the app, and I can even compose/send messages fine. But when I select an email to read, the app crashes, and Im back at the home screen. It isnt doing it 100% of the time, but probably 95%. Safari is less consistent. Sometimes it works fine, other times it crashes as its opening. When that happens, and I open it successfully the next time, it displays a page with my bookmark menu, and my open pages are gone.
Ive done a soft reset and a hard reset, restoring from my backup in itunes. Am I really supposed to pay $30 to get tech support for this? Any help you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks!
MBP 3.06 Mac OS X (10.6.5)