Sounds like it might work then.
I know for me at least, it doesn't cost extra. It's just counted as a regular message even if its an email address. I'll have to ask my sister, but I would assume she also has unlimited texting (back in high school and college, she would pretty much text from the second she woke up, to the second she went to bed) and unless vodafone is different from AT&T or Verizon, it probably won't cost extra to send a message to an email address.