The category error
A $900 car repair feels like an emergency; a $75/month line for car maintenance makes it a line item. Most "emergencies" are amortizable predictables — insurance premiums, holidays, registration, tires. Sinking funds (monthly slices into labeled buckets) convert them from budget crises into arithmetic.
The setup
List the year's lumpy knowns with their costs and months (holidays $800 in December, insurance $1,200 in March, tires $600 in October). Divide each by the months remaining; total the slices; that is one new needs line. Most households discover $150–300/month of predictables masquerading as bad luck.
Where they sit
Same high-yield savings account as the emergency fund, tracked in a spreadsheet or bank "buckets" feature — separate labels, one balance. The labels do the work: money with a name does not get spent, and the true emergency fund stays untouched for actual emergencies.