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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.
Today's episode is a reminder that, while there are always four of each day in a month, There are 30 to 31 days in most months, which means that in every month except February of non-leap years, there will be a fifth of something.
Being mindful of using these days can allow for some fun tweaks to repeating schedules.
So if you read a lot of personal finance literature, you know that one frequently mentioned hack is about using the extra two paychecks many people get each year.
What are these extra paychecks, you ask?
Well, people who get paid every two weeks would get 26 paychecks a year.
If you budget monthly, then in two months of the year your expenses will be the same, but you will get three checks instead of two.
You could use these two paychecks to accelerate paying off debt or to save and invest without any actual financial pain.
Now I haven't gotten an every-two-week regular paycheck in years, so this particular life hack doesn't help me.
But there are other ways that the fifth time of something in any given month can be different.
For instance, I know some houses of worship do something a little different on the fifth Sunday of a month.
If there is a fifth Sunday, which happens a few times a year, maybe there is no Sunday school and it's an intergenerational service or something like that.
You might also use the fifth week of the month to reduce recurring meetings and build in extra space.
For anything where the cadence is every other week, you switch that to twice a month.
It sounds the same, but it isn't exactly the same.
On your calendar.
Instead of every other week, you set the meeting to happen during the first and third week of the month, or the second and fourth week of the month.
That way, if you have a meeting every other Monday during the months in which there are five Mondays, you will get extra space in your schedule where that meeting would have gone.
You are still meeting fairly regularly, which is the point, but just not quite as frequently.
During some months, we actually get five full weekends.
This can be nice if that extra weekend comes during a particularly busy time of year.
For instance, this May, that is, in 2026, when I am first recording this there are five full weekends.
As May weekends often get really booked up, it is good to know that these things that need to happen in May and need to happen on a weekend might be a little more spread out than usual.
Retailers are excited when there are four December weekends before Christmas.
If the 25th is a Monday, which it was in 2023, this means you get weekends on the 23rd and 24th, the 16th and 17th, the 9th and 10th and the 2nd and 3rd.
Those of us who have a lot of holiday events get to enjoy the extra space too.
Anyway, most of the time we don't notice these things about the calendar.
We tend to be in the weeds with our schedules, just knowing that it is Monday so I need to do my usual Monday meeting, or that the December schedule feels less crunched in a particular year, without really thinking about why.
But looking at the calendar ahead of time can create opportunities.
So as you look ahead to any given month, think about which days of the week will happen five times.
See if there might be opportunities to use this additional frequency to your advantage.
Maybe not.
But five weekends does feel like a little extra.
And skipping a regularly recurring meeting can feel kind of nice, too.
You may as well think about these things.
In the meantime...
This is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed human.
