diff --git a/src/frontmatter.js b/src/frontmatter.js
index f2c74e1..1926037 100644
--- a/src/frontmatter.js
+++ b/src/frontmatter.js
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-import * as luxon from 'luxon';
-import * as settings from './settings.js';
-
 // get author, without decoding
 // WordPress doesn't allow funky characters in usernames anyway
 export function author(post) {
@@ -26,18 +23,10 @@ export function coverImage(post) {
 	return post.meta.coverImage;
 }
 
-// get post date, optionally formatted as specified in settings
+// get post date, previously saved as a luxon datetime object on post.meta
 // this value is also used for year/month folders, date prefixes, etc. as needed
-export function date(post, config) {
-	const dateTime = luxon.DateTime.fromRFC2822(post.data.pubDate[0], { zone: settings.custom_date_timezone });
-
-	if (settings.custom_date_formatting) {
-		return dateTime.toFormat(settings.custom_date_formatting);
-	} else if (config.includeTimeWithDate) {
-		return dateTime.toISO();
-	} else {
-		return dateTime.toISODate();
-	}
+export function date(post) {
+	return post.meta.date;
 }
 
 // get excerpt, not decoded, newlines collapsed
diff --git a/src/parser.js b/src/parser.js
index b30c655..6819488 100644
--- a/src/parser.js
+++ b/src/parser.js
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import fs from 'fs';
+import * as luxon from 'luxon';
 import xml2js from 'xml2js';
 import * as frontmatter from './frontmatter.js';
 import * as shared from './shared.js';
@@ -65,12 +66,15 @@ function collectPosts(channelData, postTypes, config) {
 
 				// meta data isn't written to file, but is used to help with other things
 				meta: {
+					type: postType,
 					id: getPostId(postData),
 					slug: getPostSlug(postData),
+					date: getPostDate(postData, config),
 					coverImageId: getPostCoverImageId(postData),
-					coverImage: undefined, // possibly set later in mergeImagesIntoPosts()
-					type: postType,
-					imageUrls: [] // possibly set later in mergeImagesIntoPosts()
+
+					// these are possibly set later in mergeImagesIntoPosts()
+					coverImage: undefined,
+					imageUrls: []
 				},
 
 				// contents of the post in markdown
@@ -98,6 +102,10 @@ function getPostSlug(postData) {
 	return decodeURIComponent(postData.post_name[0]);
 }
 
+function getPostDate(postData, config) {
+	return luxon.DateTime.fromRFC2822(postData.pubDate[0], { zone: config.customDateTimezone });
+}
+
 function getPostCoverImageId(postData) {
 	if (postData.postmeta === undefined) {
 		return undefined;
diff --git a/src/questions.js b/src/questions.js
index 0e09b86..bf31cbe 100644
--- a/src/questions.js
+++ b/src/questions.js
@@ -125,6 +125,16 @@ export const all = [
 		type: 'boolean',
 		default: false
 	},
+	{
+		name: 'custom-date-formatting',
+		type: 'string',
+		default: ''
+	},
+	{
+		name: 'custom-date-timezone',
+		type: 'string',
+		default: 'utc'
+	},
 	{
 		name: 'strict-ssl',
 		type: 'boolean',
diff --git a/src/writer.js b/src/writer.js
index c81d229..239803b 100644
--- a/src/writer.js
+++ b/src/writer.js
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import chalk from 'chalk';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import http from 'http';
 import https from 'https';
+import * as luxon from 'luxon';
 import path from 'path';
 import * as shared from './shared.js';
 
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ async function writeMarkdownFilesPromise(posts, config) {
 	}
 }
 
-async function loadMarkdownFilePromise(post) {
+async function loadMarkdownFilePromise(post, config) {
 	let output = '---\n';
 
 	Object.entries(post.frontmatter).forEach(([key, value]) => {
@@ -82,7 +83,11 @@ async function loadMarkdownFilePromise(post) {
 				outputValue = value.reduce((list, item) => `${list}\n  - "${item}"`, '');
 			}
 		} else if (value instanceof luxon.DateTime) {
-			outputValue = encodeDate(value);
+			if (config.customDateFormatting) {
+				outputValue = value.toFormat(config.customDateFormatting);
+			} else {
+				outputValue = config.includeTimeWithDate ? value.toISO() : value.toISODate();
+			}
 		} else {
 			// single string value
 			const escapedValue = (value || '').replace(/"/g, '\\"');
@@ -100,16 +105,6 @@ async function loadMarkdownFilePromise(post) {
 	return output;
 }
 
-function encodeDate(dateTime) {
-	if (settings.custom_date_formatting) {
-		return dateTime.toFormat(settings.custom_date_formatting);
-	} else if (settings.include_time_with_date) {
-		return dateTime.toISO();
-	} else {
-		return dateTime.toISODate();
-	}
-}
-
 async function writeImageFilesPromise(posts, config) {
 	// collect image data from all posts into a single flattened array of payloads
 	let skipCount = 0;