Center Point Energy’s web site is stupid for not providing me the ability to schedule a payment. They send me the bill two weeks in advance and I can either “pay now” or try to remember to pay closer to the date, forget about it, pay late, get reported for late payments, get dinged on my credit score …
One thing they do have is this nifty histogram of my natural gas usage. I lost my water heater in June, and that was the only thing using gas. I didn’t much notice it at the time, but I was paying something for a small leak that bloomed into a massive leak one friday night in August.
My very leaky house peaks at heater usage in December and January obviously.

Gas Usage Histogram
And if you’d like to see what that costs me, here in Houston, here’s that data…
Reading Date | Meter Reading |
CCF | Gas Charges |
Jan 23,2009 | 240 | 110 | 155.58 |
Dec 26,2008 | 130 | 90 | 129.31 |
Nov 21,2008 | 40 | 36 | 58.39 |
Oct 21,2008 | 4 | 4 | 16.36 |
Sep 30,2008 | 0 | 0 | 11.10 |
Aug 23,2008 | 1634 | 15 | 33.26 |
Jul 25,2008 | 1619 | 4 | 17.01 |
Jun 26,2008 | 1615 | 3 | 15.54 |
May 28,2008 | 1612 | 13 | 26.02 |
Apr 28,2008 | 1599 | 18 | 32.31 |
Mar 27,2008 | 1581 | 46 | 63.82 |
Feb 26,2008 | 1535 | 60 | 79.84 |
Jan 28,2008 | 1475 | 129 | 149.57 |
Dec 28,2007 | 1346 | 93 | 110.94 |
Nov 26,2007 | 1253 | 38 | 51.91 |
I suggest that you set up a reminder in iCal (or other application) to send you a notification email that your bill is due…