# take advantage of February? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864 "2015-02-28T17:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/1 "2015-02-28T17:27:52Z")
I’m the furthest thing from an expert in economics, so I have no idea if this is possible. But I’m thinking of that [episode of Seinfeld](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bottle_Deposit) where Newman tries to make money by redeeming bottles in Michigan (10 cents instead of the NY five). Is there some way to take advantage of the fact that February usually has only 28 days (max 29) compared to the typical 30 or 31? That’s almost a 10% difference - not a small amount of money when it comes to profit. Could some item, commodity, etc. be bought in February and sold in March - or the opposite? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/2 "2015-02-28T21:19:22Z")
I can’t think of anything that defines itself financially to the concept of ‘one month’. Utilities (gas, electric) might be sent monthly but they are computed in specific, discrete amounts of product used in said month. And any monthly bill that is always the same amount is computed as a fixed amount per year and simply divided up into equal monthly payments for convenience. ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/3 "2015-03-01T06:49:35Z")
I guess I’m thinking of something that is bought for a month, but used daily. Bus passes? Subscriptions to something? Like I wrote, I can’t think of any way to buy or sell that to an advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/4 "2015-03-01T09:05:32Z")
Maybe something to do with month-to-month rentals (like apartments) that cost the same $ every month. Thus, the daily rate changes depending on the number of days in the month. Maybe if you could find a way to take some advantage of that. Remember that Milo Minderbinder was able to [buy eggs in Malta at 7 cents per egg and re-sell them at 5 cents per egg, and still make a profit](http://everything2.com/title/Milo+Minderbinder). ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/5 "2015-03-01T09:30:57Z")
Off topic I know, but when I was a truck driver, there were some drivers in a company with refrigerated trailers that I worked for sometimes, who used to do a round trip every week: They would take lamb carcases to Germany; reload yoghurt to Greece and reload Greek yoghurt (same stuff - different label) for England. The lamb was profitable because Germans will pay more for it. The yoghurt was profitable because the EU paid Greek producers a subsidy intended to help Greek (not German) farmers. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/6 "2015-03-01T16:10:35Z")
A fun historical fact somewaht related to what you’re asking: The Roman calendar before Caesar had twelve lunar months per solar year, giving a total of 355 days per year. Since the solar year has about 365.25 days, this meant that calendar and natural seasons got out of sync over while by about ten days a year (kust like the Islamic calendar still does). To compensate for that, an intercalary month, i.e. a leap month, was added occasionally, in which case the year would have 377 or 378 days, to catch up with the natural seasons. There was, however, no fixed rule as to when such a month was added; it was in the discretion of a priest. This led to corruption because some politicians, whose term of office was usually a year, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Likewise, Rome made extensive use of tax farming: Since the government lacked capacities to collect taxes itself, it sold the right to collect these taxes to private entrepreneurs called publicani who would make an advance payment to the government and then pocketed whatever they could collect in taxes over the course of the year from the population. If the period for which tax rights were sold to publicani was defined in terms of years, these entrepreneurs, again, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Both sometimes led to priests taking bribes for introducing a leap month where none would have been called for. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/7 "2015-03-01T16:23:45Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > A fun historical fact somewaht related to what you’re asking: > > The Roman calendar before Caesar had twelve lunar months per solar year, giving a total of 355 days per year. Since the solar year has about 365.25 days, this meant that calendar and natural seasons got out of sync over while by about ten days a year (kust like the Islamic calendar still does). To compensate for that, an intercalary month, i.e. a leap month, was added occasionally, in which case the year would have 377 or 378 days, to catch up with the natural seasons. There was, however, no fixed rule as to when such a month was added; it was in the discretion of a priest. This led to corruption because some politicians, whose term of office was usually a year, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Likewise, Rome made extensive use of tax farming: Since the government lacked capacities to collect taxes itself, it sold the right to collect these taxes to private entrepreneurs called publicani who would make an advance payment to the government and then pocketed whatever they could collect in taxes over the course of the year from the population. If the period for which tax rights were sold to publicani was defined in terms of years, these entrepreneurs, again, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Both sometimes led to priests taking bribes for introducing a leap month where none would have been called for. Yeah, if it weren’t for the political machinations, it would have been a workable, if awkward, system. Note that the usual intercalary months were 22 or 23 days long. Customarily, they added one every other year, and by deciding whether to make it 22 or 23 days they could synch the seasons back up. Political manipulation got it so far out of whack that Julius Caesar declared 46 BC to be 445 days long to get the seasons back on appropriate dates before starting his reformed calendar. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/8 "2015-03-01T20:26:21Z")
> [@curwin](#): > > I guess I’m thinking of something that is bought for a month, but used daily. Bus passes? Subscriptions to something? Like I wrote, I can’t think of any way to buy or sell that to an advantage. If you have an apartment that you lease by the month, and then you rent it out by the day (the Airbnb model), you’d be taking a bit of a hit in February because you’d have fewer days to make back your lease payment. In that sense, the Airbnb customer who rents a room in February is getting a better deal than at any other time of year. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/9 "2015-03-01T20:45:55Z")
In our industry a lot of pay-related stuff is done monthly. And so the industry typically redefines the calendar months to even them out. e.g. payroll January is Jan 1 to Jan 30th. Payroll Feb is Jan 31 - Mar 1, and payroll Mar is Mar 2 - Mar 31. So the 90-day pay quarter has 3 30-day months. Some also redefine later months a bit to adjust the number of days in each calendar quarter. Some companies define the year to be 13 4 week periods. With one extra day tucked in someplace to make 365 total. Leap years are still a PITA. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/10 "2015-03-02T00:57:23Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > A fun historical fact somewaht related to what you’re asking: > > The Roman calendar before Caesar had twelve lunar months per solar year, giving a total of 355 days per year. Since the solar year has about 365.25 days, this meant that calendar and natural seasons got out of sync over while by about ten days a year (kust like the Islamic calendar still does). To compensate for that, an intercalary month, i.e. a leap month, was added occasionally, in which case the year would have 377 or 378 days, to catch up with the natural seasons. There was, however, no fixed rule as to when such a month was added; it was in the discretion of a priest. This led to corruption because some politicians, whose term of office was usually a year, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Likewise, Rome made extensive use of tax farming: Since the government lacked capacities to collect taxes itself, it sold the right to collect these taxes to private entrepreneurs called publicani who would make an advance payment to the government and then pocketed whatever they could collect in taxes over the course of the year from the population. If the period for which tax rights were sold to publicani was defined in terms of years, these entrepreneurs, again, had an incentive to have as long a year as possible. Both sometimes led to priests taking bribes for introducing a leap month where none would have been called for. The Roman calendar had 10 months originally. Two additional months, named after Julius Caesar and Augustus were introduced when the calendar was reformed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/11 "2015-03-02T01:02:37Z")
It’s a good way to schedule any misdemeanors you plan on committing. Arrange them so you’ll be convicted in mid-winter. That way if you’re sentenced to a month in jail, you’ll only serve twenty-eight days. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/12 "2015-03-02T02:31:55Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The Roman calendar had 10 months originally. Two additional months, named after Julius Caesar and Augustus were introduced when the calendar was reformed. The additional months were January and February. The Roman calendar originally started in March. Hence the names: September = seventh month October = eight month November = ninth month December = tenth month July was indeed named after Julius Caesar but was originally called Quintilis (=fifth month). August was originally Sextili (sixth month) and was renamed after Augustus Caesar. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/13 "2015-03-02T03:35:20Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The Roman calendar had 10 months originally. Two additional months, named after Julius Caesar and Augustus were introduced when the calendar was reformed. They weren’t added; they were extended. July and August have 31 days out of narcissism. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/14 "2015-03-02T19:25:00Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The Roman calendar had 10 months originally. Two additional months, named after Julius Caesar and Augustus were introduced when the calendar was reformed. You’re mixing up things here. The “original” Roman calendar from the earliest days had, indeed, ten months only, but by the time Caesar reformed it, these two months had already been added by a previous calendar reform. In other words, Caesar reformed a calendar that already had twelve months. Incidentally, the reform under Caesar occurred before Octavianus, i.e. Augustus, rose to fame, so nothing would have been named after Augustus at that stage. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/15 "2015-03-02T20:18:47Z")
One of the local restaurants take advantage of my dad (almost) every February. You see, they offer a free meal on your birthday; the problem is that my dad was born on the 29th of February (1920!). He’s only had a free meal there about 20 times even though he’s 95. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/16 "2015-03-03T03:10:31Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > One of the local restaurants take advantage of my dad (almost) every February. > > You see, they offer a free meal on your birthday; the problem is that my dad was born on the 29th of February (1920!). He’s only had a free meal there about 20 times even though he’s 95. 🙂 He _should_ have been eligible for 95 free meals in all those years. On non-leap-years, he (and the restaurant) should recognize his birthday sometimes on February 28 and sometimes on March 1. **Cecil** explains here: [When do leap-day babies celebrate their birthdays?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1216/when-do-leap-day-babies-celebrate-their-birthdays) ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/17 "2015-03-03T07:59:25Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > They weren’t added; they were extended. July and August have 31 days out of narcissism. This is not true. Back before the Julian reform, the lengths of the months were Jan 29 Feb 28 Mar 31 Apr 29 May 31 Jun 29 Jul 31 Aug 29 Sep 29 Oct 31 Nov 29 Dec 29 We see here that July has always had 31 days. This can be seen in that the Ides of July were on the 15th, as it was for all 31-day months of the Roman calendar, as opposed to the 13th for the other months. The 10 extra days that needed to be added to the old Roman calendar to make it total 365 were distributed to the months in the ways we now know, with August getting 2 extra days. But this happened in 45 BC, well before the month was named after Augustus, which took place in 8 BC. (You might also note that the Romans didn’t like even numbers that much, which explains more than it should why February is, and always has been, so short.) Cecil has written a bit on this: [How come February has only 28 days? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/442/how-come-february-has-only-28-days) ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-advantage-of-february/713864/18 "2015-03-05T01:11:47Z")
It’s so simple. Days are rarer in February. Rarer things are more expensive. Buy excess days in January and sell them in February when demand is higher. Profit!