For me it never worked for more than a few weeks to "not drink but only on special occasions" before falling back into a pattern.
My initial resolve would work for a while but would quickly turn in to once every 2 weeks, becoming "only" on weekends, would become "hump days are allowed too" would become every other day, and eventually become daily drinking.
I also noticed that a pattern, any pattern, even "only once a month and on special occasions" suddenly presented my schedule with a lot of "special occasions" or the "oh what the hell, this one extra day doesn't matter either", "oh what the hell, this impromtu visit from a friend doesn't count even if it is a Monday" , etc etc.
So no. For me it never worked in the long term.