Speaking of RTC modules, I found the Microchip MCP7940 which is pin compatible with the popular DS1307 used in most RTC modules. It provides two alarms that generate an output using the pin normally used by the squarewave out on the DS1307. So one could simply remove the DS1307 from an existing module and pop in this other chip. Then when one of the alarms are triggered, it will output an interrupt. alarms can be set on-the-fly, so this is a very useful feature to have.
The two alarms are independent, so you could set one to trigger at the same time every day, and one to trigger on a specific date/time. You could set one alarm to trigger the beginning of a day so the arduino knows a new day has started without having to poll it. With the second alarm, you would load in a bunch of events somewhere in the memory of the arduino and set the RTC alarm for the next event coming up. When that one goes off, it does what it needs to do and then it sets the alarm for the next event. That way if power is lost, it would still set the alarm for the next event to happen.
Digikey also sells them for about $1 with a minimum quantity of 1, however Digikey requires a minimum order of $25 or they will charge you a fee! I am looking at ordering samples from Microchip to evaluate. I will post up how to perform the mod, write code for it, etc.. once I am done with it.