My holiday season budgeting worked pretty well until about the 23rd. A flurry of smallish last minute expenses went on the credit card, including a quickie last minute trip to my parents house, gifts to reciprocate from unexpected, and to supplement my coffee budget--- the past five days I've wanted a lot of coffee breaks. I think most of this will be covered by overtime I had the past ten days. No regrettable purchases.
Generally, I felt like it was a successful attempt at reining in expenses around the holidays this year. It didn't really sink in until about a week ago how crucial this was. Overtime didn't kick in until the last two weeks before Christmas this year and even this only a fraction of past years. Having others chip in with food/help at mother in laws helped me relax so much that when I got an unexpected day off on the 24th, I went up to vist my folks for a quick overnight visit. I knew MIL would be taken care of and I had wrapped/sent all the gifts ahead of time so I was good to go. I only had gas as an added expense.
No guilty holidays for me!