So do you need separate iCloud accounts for your iphone AND your laptop?

Not unless they are using different accounts. The storage plan for an account is shared by all devices signed into the account. You only need sufficient storage to support the synced data, iCloud email account and iOS device backups being stored in the account the devices are sharing. You can check to see how much space is available in your account by going to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup.

I'm thinking you had a Mac/Me.com account like I did that got transferred to iCloud. We were kinda grandfathered in to 25gig storage while the basic iCloud account storage is 5. As far as I know that storage plan is the only thing that expires tomorrow. You'll just be reverted back to the basic 5gig storage.

As far as anything else you don't need to have a different iCloud account, remember only one iCloud account can be used for the full suite of services on your phone but you could use a different one for iTunes and App store purchases if you wanted to. My wife and I share one account for those purchses on all our devices and computers but I do also use a separate iCloud account as my main one on my phone to keep our emails, messages, etc. separate.